The Latin text is based on a collation of Conington’s edition with that of the Pitt Press. The spelling of the former has been generally preferred; but in punctuation the translator has used his own judgment.

P. VERGILI MARONIS GEORGICON

LIBER PRIMUS.

• Quid faciat laetas segetes, quo sidere terram
• Vertere, Maecenas, ulmisque adiungere vites
• Conveniat, quae cura boum, qui cultus habendo
• Sit pecori, apibus quanta experientia parcis,
• Hinc canere incipiam. Vos, o clarissima mundi5
• Lumina, labentem caelo quae ducitis annum;
• Liber et alma Ceres, vestro si munere tellus
• Chaoniam pingui glandem mutavit aristis,
• Poculaque inventis Acheloia miscuit uvis;
• Et vos, agrestum praesentia numina, Fauni,10
• Ferte simul Faunique pedem Dryadesque puellae:
• Munera vestra cano. Tuque o, cui prima frementem
• Fudit equum magno tellus percussa tridenti,
• Neptune; et cultor nemorum, cui pinguia Ceae
• Ter centum nivei tondent dumeta iuvenci;15
• Ipse nemus linquens patrium saltusque Lycaei
• Pan, ovium custos, tua si tibi Maenala curae,
• Adsis, o Tegeaee, favens, oleaeque Minerva
• Inventrix, uncique puer monstrator aratri,
• Et teneram ab radice ferens, Silvane, cupressum;20
• Dique deaeque omnes, studium quibus arva tueri,
• Quique novas alitis non ullo semine fruges,
• Quique satis largum caelo demittitis imbrem;
• Tuque adeo, quem mox quae sint habitura deorum
• Concilia, incertum est—urbesne invisere, Caesar,25
• Terrarumque velis curam, et te maximus orbis
• Auctorem frugum tempestatumque potentem
• Accipiat, cingens materna tempora myrto,
• An deus immensi venias maris ac tua nautae
• Numina sola colant, tibi serviat ultima Thule,30

• Teque sibi generum Tethys emat omnibus undis;
• Anne novum tardis sidus te mensibus addas,
• Qua locus Erigonen inter chelasque sequentes
• Panditur; ipse tibi iam bracchia contrahit ardens
• Scorpius, et caeli iusta plus parte reliquit;35
• Quidquid eris—nam te nec sperant Tartara regem,
• Nec tibi regnandi veniat tam dira cupido;
• Quamvis Elysios miretur Graecia campos
• Nec repetita sequi curet Proserpina matrem—
• Da facilem cursum, atque audacibus adnue coeptis,40
• Ignarosque viae mecum miseratus agrestes
• Ingredere et votis iam nunc adsuesce vocari.

• Vere novo, gelidus canis cum montibus humor
• Liquitur, et Zephyro putris se glaeba resolvit,
• Depresso incipiat iam tum mihi taurus aratro45
• Ingemere, et sulco attritus splendescere vomer.
• Illa seges demum votis respondet avari
• Agricolae, bis quae solem, bis frigora sensit;
• Illius immensae ruperunt horrea messes.
• At prius ignotum ferro quam scindimus aequor,50
• Ventos et varium caeli praediscere morem
• Cura sit, ac patrios cultusque habitusque locorum,
• Et quid quaeque ferat regio, et quid quaeque recuset.
• Hic segetes, illic veniunt felicius uvae;
• Arborei fetus alibi, atque iniussa virescunt55
• Gramina. Nonne vides, croceos ut Tmolus odores,
• India mittit ebur, molles sua tura Sabaei,
• At Chalybes nudi ferrum, virosaque Pontus
• Castorea, Eliadum palmas Epiros equarum?
• Continuo has leges aeternaque foedera certis60
• Imposuit natura locis, quo tempore primum
• Deucalion vacuum lapides iactavit in orbem,
• Unde homines nati, durum genus. Ergo age, terrae
• Pingue solum primis extemplo a mensibus anni
• Fortes invertant tauri, glaebasque iacentes65
• Pulverulenta coquat maturis solibus aestas;
• At si non fuerit tellus fecunda, sub ipsum
• Arcturum tenui sat erit suspendere sulco:
• Illic, officiant laetis ne frugibus herbae,
• Hic, sterilem exiguus ne deserat humor arenam.70

• Alternis idem tonsas cessare novales,
• Et segnem patiere situ durescere campum;
• Aut ibi flava seres mutato sidere farra,
• Unde prius laetum siliqua quassante legumen
• Aut tenuis fetus viciae tristisque lupini75
• Sustuleris fragiles calamos silvamque sonantem.
• Urit enim lini campum seges, urit avenae,
• Urunt Lethaeo perfusa papavera somno:
• Sed tamen alternis facilis labor; arida tantum
• Ne saturare fimo pingui pudeat sola, neve80
• Effetos cinerem immundum iactare per agros.
• Sic quoque mutatis requiescunt fetibus arva;
• Nec nulla interea est inaratae gratia terrae.
• Saepe etiam steriles incendere profuit agros,
• Atque levem stipulam crepitantibus urere flammis:85
• Sive inde occultas vires et pabula terrae
• Pinguia concipiunt, sive illis omne per ignem
• Excoquitur vitium, atque exsudat inutilis humor,
• Seu plures calor ille vias et caeca relaxat
• Spiramenta, novas veniat qua sucus in herbas;90
• Seu durat magis, et venas adstringit hiantes,
• Ne tenues pluviae, rapidive potentia solis
• Acrior, aut Boreae penetrabile frigus adurat.
• Multum adeo, rastris glaebas qui frangit inertes
• Vimineasque trahit crates, iuvat arva, neque illum95
• Flava Ceres alto nequiquam spectat Olympo;
• Et qui, proscisso quae suscitat aequore terga,
• Rursus in obliquum verso perrumpit aratro,
• Exercetque frequens tellurem, atque imperat arvis.

• Humida solstitia atque hiemes orate serenas,100
• Agricolae: hiberno laetissima pulvere farra,
• Laetus ager; nullo tantum se Mysia cultu
• Iactat, et ipsa suas mirantur Gargara messes.
• Quid dicam, iacto qui semine comminus arva
• Insequitur, cumulosque ruit male pinguis arenae,105
• Deinde satis fluvium inducit rivosque sequentes,
• Et, cum exustus ager morientibus aestuat herbis,
• Ecce supercilio clivosi tramitis undam
• Elicit? Illa cadens raucum per levia murmur
• Saxa ciet, scatebrisque arentia temperat arva.110

• Quid qui, ne gravidis procumbat culmus aristis,
• Luxuriem segetum tenera depascit in herba,
• Cum primum sulcos aequant sata, quique paludis
• Collectum humorem bibula deducit arena,
• Praesertim incertis si mensibus amnis abundans115
• Exit, et obducto late tenet omnia limo,
• Unde cavae tepido sudant humore lacunae?

• Nec tamen, haec cum sint hominumque boumque labores
• Versando terram experti, nihil improbus anser
• Strymoniaeque grues et amaris intuba fibris120
• Officiunt aut umbra nocet. Pater ipse colendi
• Haud facilem esse viam voluit, primusque per artem
• Movit agros, curis acuens mortalia corda,
• Nec torpere gravi passus sua regna veterno.
• Ante Iovem nulli subigebant arva coloni;125
• Ne signare quidem aut partiri limite campum
• Fas erat: in medium quaerebant, ipsaque tellus
• Omnia liberius nullo poscente ferebat.
• Ille malum virus serpentibus addidit atris,
• Praedarique lupos iussit, pontumque moveri,130
• Mellaque decussit foliis, ignemque removit,
• Et passim rivis currentia vina repressit,
• Ut varias usus meditando extunderet artes
• Paullatim, et sulcis frumenti quaereret herbam,
• Ut silicis venis abstrusum excuderet ignem.135
• Tunc alnos primum fluvii sensere cavatas;
• Navita tum stellis numeros et nomina fecit,
• Pleiadas, Hyadas, claramque Lycaonis Arcton;
• Tum laqueis captare feras, et fallere visco
• Inventum, et magnos canibus circumdare saltus;140
• Atque alius latum funda iam verberat amnem,
• Alta petens, pelagoque alius trahit humida lina;
• Tum ferri rigor atque argutae lamina serrae,
• (Nam primi cuneis scindebant fissile lignum)
• Tum variae venere artes. Labor omnia vicit145
• Improbus, et duris urguens in rebus egestas.
• Prima Ceres ferro mortales vertere terram
• Instituit, cum iam glandes atque arbuta sacrae
• Deficerent silvae et victum Dodona negaret.
• Mox et frumentis labor additus, ut mala culmos150

• Esset robigo, segnisque horreret in arvis
• Carduus: intereunt segetes, subit aspera silva,
• Lappaeque tribolique, interque nitentia culta
• Infelix lolium et steriles dominantur avenae.
• Quod nisi et adsiduis herbam insectabere rastris,155
• Et sonitu terrebis aves, et ruris opaci
• Falce premes umbras, votisque vocaveris imbrem,
• Heu magnum alterius frustra spectabis acervum,
• Concussaque famem in silvis solabere quercu.

• Dicendum et, quae sint duris agrestibus arma,160
• Quis sine nec potuere seri nec surgere messes:
• Vomis et inflexi primum grave robur aratri,
• Tardaque Eleusinae matris volventia plaustra,
• Tribulaque traheaeque, et iniquo pondere rastri;
• Virgea praeterea Celeï vilisque supellex,165
• Arbuteae crates et mystica vannus Iacchi.
• Omnia quae multo ante memor provisa repones,
• Si te digna manet divini gloria ruris.
• Continuo in silvis magna vi flexa domatur
• In burim, et curvi formam accipit ulmus aratri.170
• Huic a stirpe pedes temo protentus in octo,
• Binae aures, duplici aptantur dentalia dorso.
• Caeditur et tilia ante iugo levis altaque fagus,
• Stivaque, quae currus a tergo torqueat imos.
• Et suspensa focis explorat robora fumus.174

• Possum multa tibi veterum praecepta referre,
• Ni refugis tenuesque piget cognoscere curas.
• Area cum primis ingenti aequanda cylindro
• Et vertenda manu et creta solidanda tenaci,
• Ne subeant herbae, neu pulvere victa fatiscat,180
• Tum variae inludant pestes: saepe exiguus mus
• Sub terris posuitque domos atque horrea fecit,
• Aut oculis capti fodere cubilia talpae,
• Inventusque cavis bufo, et quae plurima terrae
• Monstra ferunt, populatque ingentem farris acervum185
• Curculio, atque inopi metuens formica senectae.
• Contemplator item, cum se nux plurima silvis
• Induet in florem et ramos curvabit olentes:
• Si superant fetus, pariter frumenta sequentur,
• Magnaque cum magno veniet tritura calore;190

• At si luxuria foliorum exuberat umbra,
• Nequiquam pingues palea teret area culmos.
• Semina vidi equidem multos medicare serentes,
• Et nitro prius et nigra perfundere amurca,
• Grandior ut fetus siliquis fallacibus esset,195
• Et, quamvis igni exiguo, properata maderent.
• Vidi lecta diu et multo spectata labore
• Degenerare tamen, ni vis humana quotannis
• Maxima quaeque manu legeret. Sic omnia fatis
• In peius ruere ac retro sublapsa referri,200
• Non aliter quam qui adverso vix flumine lembum
• Remigiis subigit, si bracchia forte remisit,
• Atque illum in praeceps prono rapit alveus amni.

• Praeterea tam sunt Arcturi sidera nobis
• Haedorumque dies servandi et lucidus Anguis,205
• Quam quibus in patriam ventosa per aequora vectis
• Pontus et ostriferi fauces tentantur Abydi.
• Libra die somnique pares ubi fecerit horas,
• Et medium luci atque umbris iam dividit orbem,
• Exercete, viri, tauros, serite hordea campis210
• Usque sub extremum brumae intractabilis imbrem;
• Nec non et lini segetem et Cereale papaver
• Tempus humo tegere et iamdudum incumbere aratris
• Dum sicca tellure licet, dum nubila pendent.
• Vere fabis satio; tum te quoque, medica, putres215
• Accipiunt sulci, et milio venit annua cura,
• Candidus auratis aperit cum cornibus annum
• Taurus, et adverso cedens Canis occidit astro.
• At si triticeam in messem robustaque farra
• Exercebis humum, solisque instabis aristis,220
• Ante tibi Eoae Atlantides abscondantur,
• Cnosiaque ardentis decedat stella Coronae,
• Debita quam sulcis committas semina, quamque
• Invitae properes anni spem credere terrae.
• Multi ante occasum Maiae coepere; sed illos225
• Expectata seges vanis elusit aristis.
• Si vero viciamque seres vilemque phaselum,
• Nec Pelusiacae curam aspernabere lentis,
• Haud obscura cadens mittet tibi signa Bootes:
• Incipe et ad medias sementem extende pruinas.230

• Idcirco certis dimensum partibus orbem
• Per duodena regit mundi sol aureus astra.
• Quinque tenent caelum zonae: quarum una corusco
• Semper sole rubens et torrida semper ab igni;
• Quam circum extremae dextra laevaque trahuntur235
• Caerulea glacie concretae atque imbribus atris;
• Has inter mediamque duae mortalibus aegris
• Munere concessae divom, et via secta per ambas,
• Obliquus qua se signorum verteret ordo.
• Mundus, ut ad Scythiam Rhipaeasque arduus arces240
• Consurgit, premitur Libyae devexus in austros.
• Hic vertex nobis semper sublimis; at illum
• Sub pedibus Styx atra videt Manesque profundi.
• Maximus hic flexu sinuoso elabitur Anguis
• Circum perque duas in morem fluminis Arctos,245
• Arctos Oceani metuentes aequore tingui.
• Illic, ut perhibent, aut intempesta silet nox
• Semper et obtenta densentur nocte tenebrae;
• Aut redit a nobis Aurora diemque reducit,
• Nosque ubi primus equis Oriens adflavit anhelis,250
• Illic sera rubens accendit lumina Vesper.
• Hinc tempestates dubio praediscere caelo
• Possumus, hinc messisque diem tempusque serendi,
• Et quando infidum remis impellere marmor
• Conveniat, quando armatas deducere classes,255
• Aut tempestivam silvis evertere pinum:
• Nec frustra signorum obitus speculamur et ortus
• Temporibusque parem diversis quattuor annum.

• Frigidus agricolam si quando continet imber,
• Multa, forent quae mox caelo properanda sereno,260
• Maturare datur: durum procudit arator
• Vomeris obtunsi dentem, cavat arbore lintres,
• Aut pecori signum aut numeros impressit acervis.
• Exacuunt alii vallos furcasque bicornes,
• Atque Amerina parant lentae retinacula viti.265
• Nunc facilis rubea texatur fiscina virga;
• Nunc torrete igni fruges, nunc frangite saxo.
• Quippe etiam festis quaedam exercere diebus
• Fas et iura sinunt: rivos deducere nulla
• Relligio vetuit, segeti praetendere saepem,270

• Insidias avibus moliri, incendere vepres,
• Balantumque gregem fluvio mersare salubri.
• Saepe oleo tardi costas agitator aselli
• Vilibus aut onerat pomis, lapidemque revertens
• Incusum aut atrae massam picis urbe reportat.275

• Ipsa dies alios alio dedit ordine Luna
• Felices operum. Quintam fuge: pallidus Orcus
• Eumenidesque satae; tum partu Terra nefando
• Coeumque Iapetumque creat saevumque Typhoea
• Et coniuratos caelum rescindere fratres.280
• Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam
• Scilicet, atque Ossae frondosum involvere Olympum;
• Ter pater exstructos disiecit fulmine montes.
• Septima post decimam felix et ponere vitem
• Et prensos domitare boves et licia telae285
• Addere. Nona fugae melior, contraria furtis.

• Multa adeo gelida melius se nocte dedere,
• Aut cum sole novo terras irrorat Eous.
• Nocte leves melius stipulae, nocte arida prata
• Tondentur, noctes lentus non deficit humor.290
• Et quidam seros hiberni ad luminis ignes
• Pervigilat, ferroque faces inspicat acuto;
• Interea longum cantu solata laborem
• Arguto coniunx percurrit pectine telas,
• Aut dulcis musti Volcano decoquit humorem295
• Et foliis undam trepidi despumat aheni.
• At rubicunda Ceres medio succiditur aestu,
• Et medio tostas aestu terit area fruges.
• Nudus ara, sere nudus; hiemps ignava colono.
• Frigoribus parto agricolae plerumque fruuntur,300
• Mutuaque inter se laeti convivia curant.
• Invitat genialis hiemps curasque resolvit,
• Ceu pressae cum iam portum tetigere carinae,
• Puppibus et laeti nautae imposuere coronas.
• Sed tamen et quernas glandes tum stringere tempus305
• Et lauri bacas oleamque cruentaque myrta;
• Tum gruibus pedicas et retia ponere cervis,
• Auritosque sequi lepores; tum figere dammas
• Stuppea torquentem Balearis verbera fundae,
• Cum nix alta iacet, glaciem cum flumina trudunt.310

• Quid tempestates autumni et sidera dicam,
• Atque, ubi iam breviorque dies et mollior aestas,
• Quae vigilanda viris? vel cum ruit imbriferum ver,
• Spicea iam campis cum messis inhorruit, et cum
• Frumenta in viridi stipula lactentia turgent?315
• Saepe ego, cum flavis messorem induceret arvis
• Agricola et fragili iam stringeret hordea culmo,
• Omnia ventorum concurrere proelia vidi,
• Quae gravidam late segetem ab radicibus imis
• Sublimem expulsam eruerent, ita turbine nigro320
• Ferret hiemps culmumque levem stipulasque volantes.
• Saepe etiam immensum caelo venit agmen aquarum,
• Et foedam glomerant tempestatem imbribus atris
• Collectae ex alto nubes; ruit arduus aether,
• Et pluvia ingenti sata laeta boumque labores325
• Diluit; implentur fossae et cava flumina crescunt
• Cum sonitu, fervetque fretis spirantibus aequor.
• Ipse Pater media nimborum in nocte corusca
• Fulmina molitur dextra; quo maxima motu
• Terra tremit, fugere ferae, et mortalia corda330
• Per gentes humilis stravit pavor: ille flagranti
• Aut Athon aut Rhodopen aut alta Ceraunia telo
• Deiicit; ingeminant Austri et densissimus imber:
• Nunc nemora ingenti vento, nunc litora plangunt.
• Hoc metuens, caeli menses et sidera serva,335
• Frigida Saturni sese quo stella receptet,
• Quos ignis caelo Cyllenius erret in orbes.
• In primis venerare deos, atque annua magnae
• Sacra refer Cereri laetis operatus in herbis,
• Extremae sub casum hiemis, iam vere sereno.340
• Tum pingues agni et tum mollissma vina,
• Tum somni dulces densaeque in montibus umbrae.
• Cuncta tibi Cererem pubes agrestis adoret;
• Cui tu lacte favos et miti dilue Baccho,
• Terque novas circum felix eat hostia fruges,345
• Omnis quam chorus et socii comitentur ovantes,
• Et Cererem clamore vocent in tecta; neque ante
• Falcem maturis quisquam supponat aristis,
• Quam Cereri torta redimitus tempora quercu
• Det motus incompositos et carmina dicat.350

• Atque haec ut certis possemus discere signis,
• Aestusque pluviasque et agentes frigora ventos,
• Ipse Pater statuit, quid menstrua luna moneret,
• Quo signo caderent Austri, quid saepe videntes
• Agricolae propius stabulis armenta tenerent.355
• Continuo ventis surgentibus aut freta ponti
• Incipiunt agitata tumescere et aridus altis
• Montibus audiri fragor, aut resonantia longe
• Litora misceri et nemorum increbrescere murmur.
• Iam sibi tum curvis male temperat unda carinis,360
• Cum medio celeres revolant ex aequore mergi
• Clamoremque ferunt ad litora, cumque marinae
• In sicco ludunt fulicae, notasque paludes
• Deserit atque altam supra volat ardea nubem.
• Saepe etiam stellas, vento impendente, videbis365
• Praecipites caelo labi, noctisque per umbram
• Flammarum longos a tergo albescere tractus;
• Saepe levem paleam et frondes volitare caducas,
• Aut summa nantes in aqua colludere plumas.
• At Boreae de parte trucis cum fulminat, et cum370
• Eurique Zephyrique tonat domus, omnia plenis
• Rura natant fossis, atque omnis navita ponto
• Humida vela legit. Numquam imprudentibus imber
• Obfuit: aut illum surgentem vallibus imis
• Aëriae fugere grues, aut bucula caelum375
• Suspiciens patulis captavit naribus auras,
• Aut arguta lacus circumvolitavit hirundo,
• Et veterem in limo ranae cecinere querellam.
• Saepius et tectis penetralibus extulit ova
• Angustum formica terens iter, et bibit ingens380
• Arcus, et e pastu decedens agmine magno
• Corvorum increpuit densis exercitus alis.
• Iam variae pelagi volucres, et quae Asia circum
• Dulcibus in stagnis rimantur prata Caystri,
• Certatim largos humeris infundere rores,385
• Nunc caput obiectare fretis, nunc currere in undas
• Et studio incassum videas gestire lavandi.
• Tum cornix plena pluviam vocat improba voce
• Et sola in sicca secum spatiatur arena.
• Ne nocturna quidem carpentes pensa puellae390

• Nescivere hiemem, testa cum ardente viderent
• Scintillare oleum et putres concrescere fungos.

• Nec minus ex imbri soles et aperta serena
• Prospicere et certis poteris cognoscere signis:
• Nam neque tum stellis acies obtunsa videtur,395
• Nec fratris radiis obnoxia surgere Luna,
• Tenuia nec lanae per caelum vellera ferri;
• Non tepidum ad solem pennas in litore pandunt
• Dilectae Thetidi alcyones, non ore solutos
• Immundi meminere sues iactare maniplos.400
• At nebulae magis ima petunt campoque recumbunt,
• Solis et occasum servans de culmine summo
• Nequiquam seros exercet noctua cantus.
• Apparet liquido sublimis in aëre Nisus,
• Et pro purpureo poenas dat Scylla capillo:405
• Quacumque illa levem fugiens secat aethera pennis,
• Ecce inimicus atrox magno stridore per auras
• Insequitur Nisus; qua se fert Nisus ad auras,
• Illa levem fugiens raptim secat aethera pennis.
• Tum liquidas corvi presso ter gutture voces410
• Aut quater ingeminant, et saepe cubilibus altis,
• Nescio qua praeter solitum dulcedine laeti,
• Inter se in foliis strepitant; iuvat imbribus actis
• Progeniem parvam dulcesque revisere nidos:
• Haud equidem credo, quia sit divinitus illis415
• Ingenium aut rerum fato prudentia maior;
• Verum ubi tempestas et caeli mobilis humor
• Mutavere vias et Iuppiter uvidus Austris
• Denset erant quae rara modo, et quae densa relaxat,
• Vertuntur species animorum, et pectora motus420
• Nunc alios, alios dum nubila ventus agebat,
• Concipiunt: hinc ille avium concentus in agris,
• Et laetae pecudes et ovantes gutture corvi.

• Si vero solem ad rapidum lunasque sequentes
• Ordine respicies, numquam te crastina fallet425
• Hora, neque insidiis noctis capiere serenae.
• Luna, revertentes cum primum colligit ignes,
• Si nigrum obscuro comprenderit aëra cornu,
• Maximus agricolis pelagoque parabitur imber:
• At si virgineum suffuderit ore ruborem,430

• Ventus erit; vento semper rubet aurea Phoebe.
• Sin ortu quarto—namque is certissimus auctor—
• Pura neque obtunsis per caelum cornibus ibit,
• Totus et ille dies, et qui nascentur ab illo
• Exactum ad mensem, pluvia ventisque carebunt,435
• Votaque servati solvent in litore nautae
• Glauco et Panopeae et Inoo Melicertae.
• Sol quoque et exoriens et cum se condet in undas,
• Signa dabit; solem certissima signa sequuntur,
• Et quae mane refert et quae surgentibus astris.440
• Ille ubi nascentem maculis variaverit ortum
• Conditus in nubem, medioque refugerit orbe,
• Suspecti tibi sint imbres; namque urguet ab alto
• Arboribusque satisque Notus pecorique sinister.
• Aut ubi sub lucem densa inter nubila sese445
• Diversi rumpent radii, aut ubi pallida surget
• Tithoni croceum linquens Aurora cubile,
• Heu male tum mites defendet pampinus uvas;
• Tam multa in tectis crepitans salit horrida grando.
• Hoc etiam, emenso cum iam decedit Olympo,450
• Profuerit meminisse magis; nam saepe videmus
• Ipsius in vultu varios errare colores,
• Caeruleus pluviam denuntiat, igneus Euros.
• Sin maculae incipient rutilo immiscerier igni,
• Omnia tum pariter vento nimbisque videbis455
• Fervere. Non illa quisquam me nocte per altum
• Ire, neque a terra moneat convellere funem.
• At si, cum referetque diem condetque relatum,
• Lucidus orbis erit, frustra terrebere nimbis,
• Et claro silvas cernes Aquilone moveri.460
• Denique, quid vesper serus vehat, unde serenas
• Ventus agat nubes, quid cogitet humidus Auster,
• Sol tibi signa dabit. Solem quis dicere falsum
• Audeat? Ille etiam caecos instare tumultus
• Saepe monet, fraudemque et operta tumescere bella.465
• Ille etiam exstincto miseratus Caesare Romam,
• Cum caput obscura nitidum ferrugine texit,
• Impiaque aeternam timuerunt saecula noctem.
• Tempore quamquam illo tellus quoque et aequora ponti,
• Obscenaeque canes importunaeque volucres470

• Signa dabant. Quotiens Cyclopum effervere in agros
• Vidimus undantem ruptis fornacibus Aetnam,
• Flammarumque globos liquefactaque volvere saxa!
• Armorum sonitum toto Germania caelo
• Audiit; insolitis tremuerunt motibus Alpes.475
• Vox quoque per lucos volgo exaudita silentes
• Ingens, et simulacra modis pallentia miris
• Visa sub obscurum noctis, pecudesque locutae,
• Infandum! sistunt amnes terraeque dehiscunt,
• Et maestum illacrimat templis ebur, aeraque sudant.480
• Proluit insano contorquens vertice silvas
• Fluviorum rex Eridanus, camposque per omnes
• Cum stabulis armenta tulit. Nec tempore eodem
• Tristibus aut extis fibrae apparere minaces
• Aut puteis manare cruor cessavit, et altae485
• Per noctem resonare lupis ululantibus urbes.
• Non alias caelo ceciderunt plura sereno
• Fulgura, nec diri totiens arsere cometae.
• Ergo inter sese paribus concurrere telis
• Romanas acies iterum videre Philippi;490
• Nec fuit indignum superis, bis sanguine nostro
• Emathiam et latos Haemi pinguescere campos.
• Scilicet et tempus veniet, cum finibus illis
• Agricola, incurvo terram molitus aratro,
• Exesa inveniet scabra robigine pila,495
• Aut gravibus rastris galeas pulsabit inanes,
• Grandiaque effossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris.
• Di patrii, indigetes, et Romule Vestaque mater,
• Quae Tuscum Tiberim et Romana Palatia servas,
• Hunc saltem everso iuvenem succurrere saeclo500
• Ne prohibete. Satis iam pridem sanguine nostro
• Laomedonteae luimus periuria Troiae:
• Iam pridem nobis caeli te regia, Caesar,
• Invidet, atque hominum queritur curare triumphos,
• Quippe ubi fas versum atque nefas: tot bella per orbem,505
• Tam multae scelerum facies: non ullus aratro
• Dignus honos; squalent abductis arva colonis,
• Et curvae rigidum falces conflantur in ensem.
• Hinc movet Euphrates, illinc Germania bellum;
• Vicinae ruptis inter se legibus urbes510

• Arma ferunt; saevit toto Mars impius orbe;
• Ut cum carceribus sese effudere quadrigae,
• Addunt in spatia, et frustra retinacula tendens
• Fertur equis auriga, neque audit currus habenas.

THE GEORGICS OF VIRGIL.

BOOK I.

• What maketh the harvests’ golden laughter, what star-clusters guide
• The yeoman for turning the furrow, for wedding the elm to his bride,
• All rearing of cattle, all tending of flocks, all mysteries
• By old experience taught of the treasure-hoarding bees—
• These shall be theme of my song. O ye bright stars of the sphere,5
• Who pilot, as softly it glides o’er the sea of the heavens, the year;
• Bacchus and fostering Ceres, if earth, through your kindness, in scorn
• Turned from the acorns wild to the glory and gold of the corn,
• And mingled her water-chalice with grapes of your bounty born;
• And ye, Fauns, Gods of the country-folk, ever mighty to aid,10
• Draw nigh, O Fauns, and with you draw nigh each Dryad-maid;
• For yours are the gifts that I chant; and thou, at whose trident-stroke
• Snorting the first of steeds from the earth like a fountain broke,
• Neptune; and Orchard-haunter, for whom by the Cyclad Sea
• Steers snow-white are browsing the fertile copses by hundreds three;15
• Thou too from thy forest-cradle, from glades of Lycaeus, draw near
• Pan, Tegea’s Lord, O Guardian of sheep—if thou holdest dear
• Maenala, graciously come! Minerva, creator thou
• Of the olive; and thou, young hero, sire of the curvèd plough;
• And, Wood-king, thou, with a slim young cypress uptorn in thine hand.20
• Come, Gods and Goddesses all who are zealous to ward tilth-land;
• Come, ye who nurture the new-born crops that no hands sow;
• Come, ye who cause from the heavens the plenteous showers to flow!
• And thou—O thou!—none knows what place in the courts of the sky
• Thou, Caesar, wilt choose. To our cities wilt thou descend from on high,25
• And watch o’er the weal of the world?—shall the lands’ vast circle adore
• Thee, as the Giver of Increase, the Lord of the Seasons Four,
• A monarch whose head is wreathed with his Mother’s myrtle-spray?
• Wilt thou come to be god of the limitless main, and shall seafarers pray
• To thy godhead alone, and uttermost Thule be thrall to thy power,30

• And the Sea-queen give thee her daughter with all her waves for dower?
• Or a new star, guiding the slowly-rolling months, wilt thou be,
• Where ’twixt the Virgin and Claws a wide space opens for thee:—
• Lo, now the Scorpion is drawing aside his arms of flame,
• And hath left thee more than the space that a single Sign doth claim!35
• Whichsoe’er thou wilt be—not Tartarus hopes thee to sit on her throne;
• And God forbid thou shouldst covet that awful crown for thine own!
• Though Greece may dream of a Paradise there, an Elysian Plain,
• Though oft-sought Proserpine care not to follow her mother again;—
• O speed my course, O smile upon this my bold emprise!40
• Look on the peasant who knows not the way with compassionate eyes!
• Come! Hear and answer prayer even now, ere thou mount to the skies!

• In the birth-tide of spring, when melt from the mountains the ice and the snow,
• And the crumbling clods are breaking down as the west-winds blow,
• Then let the bull begin to groan, at the plough deep-thrust45
• As he strains, let the share gleam bright as the furrows scour it of rust.
• That field will grant to the prayers of the greediest husbandman more
• Than all, which twice to the sunglare, and twice to the winter frore
• Hath been bared: his barns ever burst with their measureless golden store.
• But, or ever we cleave with the share this chartless sea of good,50
• The winds let us heedfully learn, and the sky’s ever-changing mood,
• The inherited needs for nurture and dressing of soil and soil,
• What fruits each region will yield, and what deny to our toil.
• Here corn-crops, yonder grapes in richer abundance glow,
• Otherwhere offspring of trees, or unbidden the green tides flow55
• Of the grass. Mark Tmolus—the odours of saffron are streaming thence:
• Her ivory India sends, Sabaeans their frankincense,
• The bare-armed Chalybes iron, and Pontus the beaver’s balm,
• And Epirus the mares that win in the race the Olympian palm.
• Such laws and abiding covenant-pledges did Nature lay60
• On the several lands ordained, yea, since that far-off day
• When Deucalion first cast stones o’er a world unpeopled yet,
• Whence sprang this flint-heart race of men. O come then, set
• Thy sturdy steers with the year’s first months to upturn with the share
• The mould of a rich soil: then, when the clods are so laid bare,65
• Let summer scorch them to dust with her ripening suns’ hot glare.
• But if fertile the soil be not, will a shallow furrow suffice
• For throwing it up in ridges light ere Arcturus rise:—
• Treat rich soils so, lest choking weeds mid the glad corn stand,
• And poor, lest the moisture fail, and leave them a waste of sand.70

• In years alternate withal shalt thou let thy reaped field bide
• Fallow: the face of the sleeping plain let a hard crust hide.
• Else, sow ’neath the stars of a diverse season the golden corn
• Where erst the pods of the glad pulse danced in the wind of morn,
• Or where the progeny slender-limbed of the weak vetch climbed,75
• Or the frail stalks stood and the bells of the bitter lupine chimed:
• Not flax or oats!—for their harvest burns out the sap of the plain,
• So likewise do poppies drenched with oblivion’s slumber-rain.
• Yet thy toil by rotation is made more light: but forbear not of pride
• From mulching with fattening dung parched soil, nor from scattering wide
• The ash-grime over the fields whence the nature and strength has died.
• So also by change of crop land gains the rest that is sought,
• Nor left untilled the while is the soil, and thankful for naught.
• Oft, too, hath it much availed to fire the barren lands,
• And to smite with the sword of flame the stubble’s light-armed bands:85
• Whether mysterious strength and nourishment be given
• To the soil thereby, or whether all evil and poisonous leaven
• Be scorched therefrom, and useless moisture be steamed away,
• Or that many a channel and pore long hidden from light of day
• Is unsealed by the heat, wherethrough to the young blades sap may rise;90
• Or that rather it hardens, and closes the clefts that gape to the skies,
• Lest the searching rains or a scorching sun’s too vehement stress,
• Or the north-wind’s piercing cold may blast it to barrenness.
• And greatly he helpeth his land, who shatters the torpid clods
• With the mattock, and drags with-harrows across;—from the home of the Gods95
• Looks golden Ceres down upon him with favouring brow;—
• He too, who, after his field’s first furrowing, turneth the plough
• Athwart, and breaks through the sides of the ridges, with ceaseless toil
• Laboureth ever the earth, and is despot over the soil.

• For drizzling summers and sunny winters, husbandmen, pray;100
• For a winter of dust with a glorious robe of corn will array
• Thy glorying field: this, more than all tillage of man, makes proud
• Mysia, makes Gargara marvel bedraped with her golden cloud.
• Can I praise him enough, who casteth his seed, then hand to hand
• Charges the field, and levels its hillocks of barren sand,105
• Then leads a brimming brook and its following rills o’er the land?
• When fevered the parched land lies, and the corn-blades dying sink,
• Lo, he is luring the wave from its hillside-channel’s brink—
• O see it, where falling it wakes amid pebbles smooth and round
• Hoarse murmurs, and cools with its gushings the burning lips of the ground!110

• He is wise who, lest ’neath the ears’ weight earthward the stalks be flung,
• Grazes the lush growth down while green is the blade and young,
• Soon as the crops to the furrows’ level have risen; and he
• Who drains and cleanses through filtering sand the wet-clogged lea;
• Then most, if a river swelling in months of unsettled skies115
• Overflows, and a veil of slime over all the lowland lies,
• And from pools in every hollow upsteaming the vapours rise.

• Yet, yet, when the labours of men and of oxen have done all this
• For the land, much mischief is wrought by the goose with her shameless hiss,
• By norland cranes, by the bitter-rooted succory killed120
• Is the corn, or by shade is stunted. Allfather himself hath willed
• That the pathway of tillage be thorny. He first by man’s art broke
• Earth’s crust, and by care for the morrow made keen the wits of her folk,
• Nor suffered his kingdom to drowse ’neath lethargy’s crushing chain.
• No husbandman tamed the savage fields before Jove’s reign.125
• To mark for one’s own a plot of land, to divide the plain
• By a boundary-line, was a sin: all winnings in common were won.
• Earth of herself bare all things freely, and bidden of none.
• It was Jove who bestowed their deadly venom on serpents fell,
• Who bade wolves ravin for prey, and the sea in tempest swell,130
• Who dashed from the leaves their honey, who made fire flee away,
• Who stilled the brooks that with wine were wont to hurry and stray,
• That Thought on experience’ anvil might shape arts manifold,
• And might seek in the furrow the blade that is pledge of the harvest’s gold,
• And smite from the veins of flint the fire-soul hidden there.135
• Then first of the hollowed alder-shell were the rivers ware:
• Then shipmen numbered the stars, and gave unto each his name,
• As the Pleiads, the Hyads, the Huntress-bear’s bright points of flame.
• Then how wild things are snared, and with birdlime how betrayed
• Men found, and how with the hounds to compass the forest-glade.140
• And now one lashes a broad stream’s face with a casting-net,
• Searching the depths, one drags from the sea seines dripping-wet.
• Then came the unyielding iron, the saw-blade’s hissing scream—
• For with wedges the first men cleft from the tree the rough-hewn beam:—
• Then followed manifold arts: unflinching toil ever won145
• Triumphs: in hardship’s school stern need still drave men on.
• By Ceres were men first taught with iron to upheave the ground,
• When acorns now and arbute-berries were no more found,
• And Dodona denied the food erst scattered freely round.
• But trouble and travail soon fell on the corn: by noisome rust150

• Were the stalks devoured: the lazy thistle his dense spears thrust
• Mid the wheat-ranks: perish the crops; uprises a thicket of thorn,
• Of caltrops, of burrs, and over the gleaming gold of the corn
• The fruitless darnel lords it, the barren oat is king.
• Then unless thou assail the weeds with the mattock’s tireless swing,155
• And scare with clangour the birds, and thin with thine hook the shade
• Of thy farm overgloomed, and with vows call down the rain to thine aid,
• Alas for thee! thou wilt eye thy neighbour’s pile in vain,
• And wilt shake the oak in the woods to allay thine hunger’s pain.

• Now named be the weapons meet for the sturdy yeoman’s toil,160
• Without which never could harvests be sown nor spring from the soil.
• The share and the ponderous strength of the curved plough first do I name,
• And the wains slow-rolling, the gift of Eleusis’ Goddess-dame,
• The sledge and the drag withal, and the mattock of grievous weight,
• And old King Celeus’ invention, the costless wattled crate,165
• Hurdles of arbute, Iacchus’ fan, the mystic sign.
• Forget not betimes to provide all these, and to store, if thine
• Is to be at the last a glory worthy the land divine.

• The elm in the woods from the first is by main force made to bow
• To the plough-stock’s arch, and receives the shape of the curvèd plough.170
• Eight feet forward the pole from the stock thereof must run:
• Two mould-boards and share-beams of twofold ridge are fitted thereon.
• For the yoke hath a linden light been felled, a towering beech
• For the handle, the which to thy car her earth-hidden course shall teach.
• O’er the hearth hang all, that the smoke may search through the fibres of each.175

• Many a maxim could I recount of the men of old,
• If thou start not back, and begrudge of lowly cares to be told.
• With the giant roller levelled must be thy threshing-floor,
• Firm-paved with clay, by handwork kneaded and oft turned o’er,
• Lest weeds spring up, lest it crack in the hot dust’s triumphing-hour,180
• And manifold vermin mock thy toil. Her barn and her bower
• Oft hath the pigmy mouse built under the earth’s smooth face,
• Or the eyeless mole hath scooped thereunder a slumber-place,
• And in crannies the toad is found, and all things hideous and vile
• Earth spawns: of thy corn will the weevil ravage a mighty pile,185
• And the ant, by dread of an age of want spurred on to toil.
• Mark, too, when the wide-spreading walnut amidst of the woods in a cloud
• Of blossoms arrays her, and earthward her odorous arms are bowed,
• If the most of them set into fruit, even so shall thine harvest be;
• Great shall be summer’s heat, great labour of threshing for thee.190

• But if leaves in lavish greenness and broad shade gloom around,
• In vain shall thy floor bruise haulms that in naught but chaff abound.
• Many men have I known drug seeds ere they trusted them to the soil;
• In natron they wont to steep them, and dark thick lees of oil,
• That fuller the fruit might swell in the pod that so oft is a liar,195
• And quickly might seethe and soften, how scant soever the fire.
• I have seen seeds chosen through years, and with infinite labour scanned,
• Degenerate notwithstanding, unless each season by hand
• Men picked out ever the finest. So, by the law of Fate
• Haste all things from good to worse, slip downhill soon or late.200
• It is even as when against the stream with might and main
• One roweth a boat; if he haply relax his arms’ strong strain,
• Headlong adown the river the current sweeps him again.

• We yeomen, moreover, must watch Arcturus’ star, and the rise
• Of the Kids, and the gleaming Serpent, with no less heedful eyes205
• Than do they who over the wind-scourged waters homeward-bound
• On Pontus venture their lives, and Abydos’ oyster-ground.
• When the hours of day and of slumber the Balance hath equal made,
• And now hath parted the world in twain ’twixt light and shade,
• Goad, yeomen, your steers to their toil, wide sow with barley the plain210
• To the very verge of baffling winter’s stormy rain.
• Then too is the time when the flax and the poppy of Ceres should lie
• Earth-veiled, and ere then, while thou canst, while yet the ground is dry,
• Bend over the plough, while the clouds burst not, but still hang high.
• For beans is the sowing-time spring; then, child of the East, lucerne,215
• Soft furrows receive thee, and care for the millet must yearly return
• When gleaming-white the Bull with his golden horns thrusts wide
• The gates of the year, and the Dogstar backward sinks in the tide.
• But if for a harvest of wheat and of sturdy spelt thou wilt till
• The ground, and on naught but the golden ears hast fixed thy will,220
• Let the morning setting of Atlas’ Daughters be seen of thee,
• And the eventide plunge of the stars of the flaming Crown in the sea,
• Or ever thou yield to the furrows their debt of seed, and ere
• Thou haste to entrust to the grudging earth the hope of the year.
• Many before the setting of Maia begin, but they225
• See their dream of a harvest vanish in empty ears away.
• But and if it be vetch thou wilt sow, and the bean of little price,
• And the care of the Nile-born lentil be not contemned in thine eyes,
• Boötes’ setting will flash unto thee no doubtful token:
• Begin, and till frost’s mid-season thy sowing may stretch unbroken.230

• For our guidance the sun directeth his golden car’s career
• In portions fixed, measured out through the twelve great Signs of the sphere.
• Five Zones span all the heaven, whereof one flusheth aye
• Red in the flame of the sun, and is scorched by his fire alway;
• And around this far to the right and far to the left sweep twain235
• Stiff-frozen with pale-blue ice, and dark with stormy rain.
• ’Twixt these and the midmost are twain bestowed by the bounty of Heaven
• On afflicted mortals, and through them a highway celestial is driven
• Where slantwise wheels the procession of Signs for seasons given.
• High as the world towers up toward norland hills of snow,240
• So low doth it slope and sink toward Libya’s torrid glow.
• This pole hangeth over our heads evermore: that other, ’tis told,
• Dark Styx and the netherworld Ghosts far under their feet behold.
• With sinuous coiling here doth the giant Serpent glide,
• And around and between the Bears in river-fashion slide—245
• The Bears that fearfully shrink from plunging in Ocean’s tide.
• There, as they tell—we know not—is hush of the dead of night
• Ever, and gloom made thicker by darkness palling the light;
• Or haply from us returning Aurora to them brings day,
• And on us when the breath of the panting steeds of Dawn doth play,250
• The Evening-star in the gloaming is kindling there her ray.
• Hence storms, whereunto the face of the heavens gives no clue,
• Are foreknown, and the day of harvest, the time unto sowing due,
• And when with the oar to smite the smooth bright treacherous main
• Shall be safe, and when to launch on the deep armadas again,255
• Or to lay the forest-pine in its season low on the plain.
• Nor for naught do we watch the Signs as they rise or sink from the sky,
• And note the Seasons that quarter the year so evenly.

• Whensoever by sleety rain the yeoman is prisoned fast,
• Much work that, when skies are fair, must needs be wrought in haste,260
• May be done betimes; for then the ploughman sharpens and shapes
• His blunted share’s hard fang, from the tree carves troughs for the grapes,
• He sets his mark on his flock, his tallies on grain-heaps lays;
• Some point vine-stakes the while, and double-horned vine-stays,
• And prepare for the vine-shoots bands of pliant willow-sprays.265
• Now is the flexible basket woven of briar or rush;
• Now parch o’er the fire your grain, and now with the millstone crush.

• Nay, even on holy-days the laws of God and man
• Permit some works to be done: no scruple hath laid its ban
• On leading the runnels over the crops, on fencing the corn,270

• On laying snares for birds, on burning briar and thorn,
• On plunging into the health-giving river the bleating sheep.
• And the ass’s driver often with oil or with apples cheap
• Then ladeth the slow beast’s sides, and returning bringeth back
• From the town an indented millstone or pitch-mass glossy-black.275

• The Moon herself hath allotted days of blessing and bale
• For thy diverse works. The fifth shun thou; then Orcus the pale
• And the Furies were born; then Earth brought forth that spawn of hell,
• Coeus, Iapetus bare she, the giant Typhoeus the fell,
• And the brethren leagued to raze the shining walls of Heaven.280
• Thrice upon Pelion to pile up Ossa these had striven,
• And on Ossa to roll Olympus up with his forest-crown:
• Thrice by Allfather’s bolts was their mountain-pile dashed down.
• For planting the vine the seventeenth day good fortune gives,
• And for tying the loops to the warp, and for catching and breaking beeves.285
• Propitious to runaway slaves is the ninth, but adverse to thieves.

• Many a task, in sooth, is fitlier done in the night,
• Or when the Daystar bedeweth the earth, ere the sun is bright.
• Better by night light stubble is cut, parched meads better mown
• By night, when with plenteous night-dews springy the grass hath grown.290
• By his winter-fire’s red glow one keeps late vigil, with knife
• Keen-whetted pointing him torchwood slivers, the while his wife
• Brightens the long monotonous household-toil with singing,
• While racing athwart her web is the shuttle shrilly ringing,
• Or over the Fire-king’s flame she boils down thick sweet must,295
• And skims with leaves the quivering caldron’s white foam-crust.
• But the ruddy corn with the sickle is cut in the midnoon heat,
• And the chaff from the grain in the midnoon glare doth the threshing-floor beat.
• All cloakless plough, sow cloakless: in winter the yeoman may rest;
• Mid its cold do the husbandmen ever enjoy their storehouses’ best.300
• They make merry together, and neighbours for neighbours the feast prepare.
• It is hospitality’s high-tide, it loosens the fetters of care;
• As when keels deep-laden have won to the haven for which they yearn,
• And the gladsome mariners wreathe with garlands every stern.
• Yet then is the season for stripping of acorns the oak in the wood,305
• The berries of laurel and olive and myrtle red as blood,
• The season to snare the cranes, the nets for the stag to spread,
• To course the long-eared hare, to whirl around the head
• The sling of the Western Isles, and to smite the deer with the stone,
• When the snow lies deep, when the rivers are driving the ice-pack on.310

• What of the stormy stars of autumn-tide shall I say,
• How watchful men must be, when shorter now is the day,
• And tempered the heat?—or when Spring pours down in torrents of rain,
• When the harvest of spears bristles over the fields, when every grain
• Is swelling, milky yet, in the green stalks thronging the plain?315
• Oft I, when the yeoman was bringing his reapers into the field
• Of gold, was in act to strip the frail-stalked barley’s yield,
• Have seen the embattled hosts of the winds all clash in the fray,
• Tearing the heavy-eared crop from its hold on the earth away,
• Whirling it up through the air, till the stubble and stalk of the corn320
• Are flying like birds on the tempest’s black tornado borne.
• A Titan battalion of waters oft sweeps from the welkin down,
• And the huddled clouds roll up on the storm’s malignant frown
• Black deluge of rain: the firmament crashes to earth from the height,
• And floods with its measureless downpour the crops late smiling bright,325
• And the toil of the steers: brim trenches, the swelling rivers roar
• In their gorges; the sea is boiling o’er leagues of steaming shore.
• In the midst of the night of clouds Allfather himself is shaking
• His bolts in his gleaming hand: the earth’s huge mass is quaking
• At the rush of them: fled have the beasts; men’s hearts through every land330
• By grovelling panic are cowed, while He with his blazing brand
• Hurls Athos or Rhodope down, or the Cape of the Thunder-strand.
• Ever louder the south-wind howls, the rain pours thick and fast;
• Now shrieketh the forest, now waileth the shore in the mighty blast.

• In fear of this, mark well heaven’s stars and the months that they light;335
• Note whither the shivering planet of Saturn shrinks from sight,
• What orbits in heaven Mercury’s wandering fire makes bright.
• Before all things worship the Gods: thy yearly sacrifice bring
• Unto Ceres; on glad green grass pay thou thine offering
• When the last sun of winter has set, when calm is the smile of Spring.340
• Fat are the lambkins then, then wines are mellowest,
• Then slumber is sweet, and thick is the shade on the mountain’s breast.
• Thou shalt see all lads of the country-side Queen Ceres adore.
• Milk blended with honey and mellow wine unto her do thou pour:
• Around the young crops thrice let the victim propitious pace,345
• And let all the array of the neighbours attend it with gladsome face,
• And call upon Ceres with outcry loud—“To our homes draw near!”
• And let no man lay the sickle unto the ripened ear
• Or ever to Ceres, with temples wreathed with the twined oak-bough,
• He present the uncouth dance, and chant the Hymn of the Plough.350

• That by tokens sure these things may still be of us foretold—
• The sultry heat and the rain, and the winds that waft the cold,—
• Allfather appointed what warnings the monthly moon should bring,
• What sign should betoken the south-wind’s lulling, what oft-seen thing
• Bid husbandmen gather their flocks more nigh to the fold from the lea.355
• Soon as the winds are rising, begins on the gulfs of the sea
• A tossing and surging; rings from the high hills suddenly
• A crash as of dry wood snapping; or far-resounding the shore
• Is a turmoil of echoes: more loud is the moan of the woods evermore.
• No longer the breakers forbear to buffet the keels, when fly360
• Swiftly the sea-mews back from the outsea, bearing the cry
• Of the troubled deep to the land, and when the sea-coots play
• On the wave-forsaken strand, when the heron afar doth stray
• From her home in the fens, and over the high clouds soareth away.
• When wind is imminent, oft shalt thou see a sudden star365
• Slip headlong down from the sky, and behind it a long white bar
• Lies on the blackness of night, a splendour trailing afar.
• Light straws and fallen leaves oft flutter in fairy race,
• Or feathers cling together, and sport on the water’s face.
• But when from the realm of the fierce North-wind it lightens, and when370
• The East and the West-wind’s cloudy halls are thundering, then
• All trenches are brimming, the land is flooded, all seafaring men
• Furl streaming sails. Never cometh a storm unheralded:
• Sometimes, as it rolls through the mountain-gorges, the cranes have fled
• High-soaring before it: the heifer, her eyes upturned to the sky,375
• With wide-spread nostrils hath snuffed the breeze rushing gustily by:
• Shrill-crying around the pools the swallow her flight hath been winging:
• Their immemorial plaint the frogs in the fen have been singing:
• Tunnelling oft a strait path, forth from her earth-roofed shrines
• The ant hath borne her eggs: the bow, on the cloud as it shines,380
• Drinks vapour up: the battalion of rooks, from their feeding-ground flying,
• With clashing of wings come thronging, with sound of a multitude crying.
• All manner of deep-sea birds, and the marish-fowl that feed
• Through many a pleasant pool in Cayster’s Asian mead—
• Thou shalt see them with showers of spray their shoulders eagerly splashing,385
• Now meeting the surf with their heads, now into the billows dashing,
• And aimlessly revelling on, as it were in a passion of washing.
• The trumpet-tongued rogue raven shouts to the rain his command,
• And stalks, sole sentinel he of the sea-forsaken sand.
• Yea, even the handmaids, carding the wool in nightlong toil,390

• Foresee the storm, when they mark in the burning lamp the oil
• Sputter and flash, and a shroud around the lamp-wick coil.
• Yea, sunshine too after rain, and the cloudless sky’s return
• Canst thou foresee, and by sure and certain tokens discern.
• For the sharp spear-points of the stars seem then not dulled to thine eyes,395
• Nor appeareth the moon to her brother’s rays beholden to rise,
• Nor delicate fleeces of cloud drift over the heaven’s face,
• Nor halcyons dear to the Sea-queen expand to the sun’s warm rays
• Their wings on the shore; and swine, the unclean beasts, in their jaws
• Forget to toss to and fro loose wisps of hay and straws.400
• But the clouds sink down to the hollows, and lie as asleep on the plain.
• Keeping time with the sunset, the owl from her watchtower’s height in vain
• Calls through the gloaming, repeating her one monotonous strain.
• High up, a speck in the limpid air, doth Nisus soar,
• And Scylla suffers vengeance for that bright lock that she shore.405
• Wheresoever she cleaves with her pinions in flight the impalpable air,
• Lo, vengeful, relentless, with hiss of the rushing of wings is he there,
• Nisus, hard on her tracks: when he for his swoop towers high,
• Cleaving impalpable air with wings terror-blown doth she fly.
• Then, as with voices suppressed, do the rooks three times repeat,410
• Yea, four, their low clear notes: with some strange rapture sweet
• Exulting, again and again amidst their high-built bowers
• They clamour through screens of leaves: they rejoice, now that past are the showers,
• To return to their tiny fledglings again and their happy nests.
• It is not, I trow, that heaven hath implanted within their breasts415
• Wit more than man’s, or Fate foreknowledge of things to be.
• No, but when storm and the sky’s ever varying vapour-sea
• Have shifted their channels, and heaven, with the south-wind’s burden wet,
• Closes the pores late open, and loosens the erst close-set,
• Then the form of their minds is altered, their breasts with emotions are stirred420
• Far other than when the blast drave onward the black cloud-herd.
• Hence cometh the chorus of birds that make meads ring with their notes,
• Hence cometh the joy of the cattle, the rooks’ exultant throats.

• But and if thou wilt mark the sun’s swift race, and the moons that go
• In procession one after other, thou never shalt fail to foreknow425
• The morrow, shalt never be duped by a fair night’s treacherous show.
• If the moon, as she gathers her fires when anew they return to the sky,
• Have enclosed ’twixt her horns bedimmed a space black utterly,
• For the husbandman and for the seaman are torrents of rain in store:
• But if with a maiden blush her face be mantled o’er,430

• Wind cometh: Phoebe the golden for wind glows red evermore.
• But if on her fourth night’s rising—for this is the sign most sure—
• Through the heaven with horns unblunted she rides in radiance pure,
• Then all that day, and its offspring that follow in its train
• On to the end of the month, shall be free from wind and from rain:435
• And the shipmen, from peril delivered, shall pay their vows by the sea
• Unto Glaucus, to Ino’s son Melicerta, and Panope.
• The sun too—at rising, and when mid the billows his course is run—
• Shall give to thee tokens; the surest of tokens attend the sun,
• Alike at morning-tide and when stars rise over the earth.440
• When he blurreth his splendour with fleck and stain at its very birth,
• Cloud-hidden, and out from the midst of his disc his glory flees,
• Then fear thou rain; for the south-wind, mischief-boding to trees
• And to harvest-fields and to flocks, presseth onward fast from the deep.
• Or when on the verge of daybreak his rays wide-parted leap445
• Forth through rifts in the clouds, or when from Tithonus’ bed
• Pale riseth the Dawn, from the couch with saffron petals spread,
• Ah then for the mellowing grapes will the tendril’s shield be frail,
• So thick and fast on the house-roof crackles the arrowy hail.
• This too shall it profit yet more to remember—when now from the sky450
• He sinks, having traversed his course, full oftentimes then we espy
• Over the face of the sun the changeful colours trail.
• Sea-green giveth warning of rain, flame-red of an easterly gale:
• But if on his ruddy fire dark spots shall begin to lie,
• One seething fury of wind and cloud shall be earth and sky.455
• Let no man counsel me on a night like that from the land
• To launch on the deep, nor to pluck from the shore the hawser-band!
• But if, when at morn he brings and at eventide buries the day,
• His disc shall be clear and bright, thee let no clouds dismay,
• For against the blue shalt thou see the trees in a north-wind sway.460
• What evening brings at the waning of day, from whence drive fast
• The fairweather clouds on the wind, what plotteth the rain-laden blast,
• Hereof shall the sun give tokens. Who dares arraign the Sun
• For a liar? Oft, when rebellion’s foot moves stealthily on,
• He warns, and when treason and veiled war onward-surging come.465
• He too, when Caesar was murdered, had pity on orphaned Rome.
• In lurid gloom did he shroud his face’s glory-light,
• Till shuddered a godless world with dread of eternal night.
• Nor he alone—earth too and the sea-plains in that hour,
• Yea, hounds unclean and birds whose shriek hath ominous power,470

• Gave token. How oft have we seen the forges where Cyclopes toil
• Burst, and o’er plains ’neath Etna the waves of lava boil
• Whirling up fire-balls and molten rocks like flaming oil!
• Germany heard o’er her skies a thunder of battle roar:
• Shuddered the Alps with earthquake, and shook as never before:475
• Dim, utter-silent woods heard suddenly far-ringing cries
• As of multitudes: phantoms haggard and pale in wondrous wise
• In the darkness appeared: from the throats of brutes did a man’s voice sound—
• ’Twas awful!—the earth yawned wide, swift rivers stopped spell-bound:
• In temples ivory wept, and bronzes in sweat were drowned.480
• Poured over his banks Eridanus, monarch of rivers, and whirled
• Whole woods on his madding crest, and o’er all the lowlands hurled
• Herds with their steadings. Nor ceased through all those days of fear
• Dark doom-denouncing threads in the victims’ flesh to appear,
• Nor the wells to flow with blood, nor the cities builded on high485
• To ring through the shuddering night with the howling wolves’ long cry.
• Never before from heavens of cloudless blue fell more
• Thunderbolts, never blazed dread comets so oft before.
• No marvel that ranks of Rome by Philippi were seen again
• Clashing with brother-arms in the grapple of battle-strain.490
• This horror the Gods endured, that our blood should fertilize
• Emathia-land and the far-stretching fields of Haemus twice.
• Ay, and a day shall come, when the yeoman, plying his toil,
• As on those far borders with curved ploughshare he upheaveth the soil,
• Shall light upon pikes by rust made one red honeycomb:495
• His ponderous mattock shall clang upon helms filled only with loam;
• He shall marvelling stare at the giant bones in their rifted tomb.
• Gods of our sires, of our birth-land, Romulus, Mother divine,
• Vesta, who wardest Tiber and Rome’s own Palatine,
• That in any wise this our Hero should succour a world laid low500
• Forbid not ye! Our blood hath expiated enow
• Troy’s broken troth and Laomedon’s perjury long ago.
• Long have the halls of the skies, O Caesar, been jealous that we
• Possess thee, and murmur that triumphs of earth should be dear unto thee,
• In a world where right and wrong are reversed, in a world of war,505
• Of multitudinous forms of crime, whence banished afar
• Is respect for the plough: the yeomen are marched from a mourning land,
• The sickle’s gracious curve is reforged to the grim straight brand.
• Here doth Euphrates waken the war, Germania there:
• Treaties are broken by neighbour cities: arms these bear510

• Against those: unnatural strife is raging the whole world o’er.
• ’Tis as when through the wide-flung barriers racing chariots pour:
• Lap by lap do they quicken, the driver vainly strains
• At the curb, hurried on by his steeds, neither hearkens the car to the reins.

P. VERGILI MARONIS GEORGICON

LIBER SECUNDUS.

• Hactenus arvorum cultus et sidera caeli;
• Nunc te, Bacche, canam, nec non silvestria tecum
• Virgulta et prolem tarde crescentis olivae.
• Huc, pater o Lenaee; tuis hic omnia plena
• Muneribus, tibi pampineo gravidus autumno5
• Floret ager, spumat plenis vindemia labris;
• Huc, pater o Lenaee, veni, nudataque musto
• Tingue novo mecum direptis crura cothurnis.

• Principio arboribus varia est natura creandis.
• Namque aliae, nullis hominum cogentibus, ipsae10
• Sponte sua veniunt camposque et flumina late
• Curva tenent, ut molle siler, lentaeque genistae,
• Populus et glauca canentia fronde salicta;
• Pars autem posito surgunt de semine, ut altae
• Castaneae, nemorumque Iovi quae maxima frondet15
• Aesculus, atque habitae Graiis oracula quercus.
• Pullulat ab radice aliis densissima silva,
• Ut cerasis ulmisque; etiam Parnasia laurus
• Parva sub ingenti matris se subiicit umbra.
• Hos natura modos primum dedit; his genus omne20
• Silvarum fruticumque viret nemorumque sacrorum.

• Sunt alii, quos ipse via sibi repperit usus.
• Hic plantas tenero abscindens de corpore matrum
• Deposuit sulcis; hic stirpes obruit arvo,
• Quadrifidasque sudes, et acuto robore vallos;25
• Silvarumque aliae pressos propaginis arcus
• Expectant et viva sua plantaria terra;
• Nil radicis egent aliae, summumque putator
• Haud dubitat terrae referens mandare cacumen.
• Quin et caudicibus sectis—mirabile dictu—30

• Truditur e sicco radix oleagina ligno.
• Et saepe alterius ramos impune videmus
• Vertere in alterius, mutatamque insita mala
• Ferre pirum, et prunis lapidosa rubescere corna.

• Quare agite o, proprios generatim discite cultus,35
• Agricolae, fructusque feros mollite colendo,
• Neu segnes iaceant terrae. Iuvat Ismara Baccho
• Conserere, atque olea magnum vestire Taburnum.
• Tuque ades, inceptumque una decurre laborem,
• O decus, o famae merito pars maxima nostrae,40
• Maecenas, pelagoque volans da vela patenti.
• Non ego cuncta meis amplecti versibus opto,
• Non, mihi si linguae centum sint oraque centum,
• Ferrea vox; ades et primi lege litoris oram;
• In manibus terrae: non hic te carmine ficto45
• Atque per ambages et longa exorsa tenebo.

• Sponte sua quae se tollunt in luminis oras,
• Infecunda quidem, sed laeta et fortia surgunt;
• Quippe solo natura subest. Tamen haec quoque, si quis
• Inserat, aut scrobibus mandet mutata subactis,50
• Exuerint silvestrem animum, cultuque frequenti
• In quascumque voles artes haud tarda sequentur.
• Nec non et sterilis quae stirpibus exit ab imis,
• Hoc faciet, vacuos si sit digesta per agros:
• Nunc altae frondes et rami matris opacant55
• Crescentique adimunt fetus, uruntque ferentem.
• Iam, quae seminibus iactis se sustulit arbos,
• Tarda venit, seris factura nepotibus umbram,
• Pomaque degenerant sucos oblita priores,
• Et turpes avibus praedam fert uva racemos.60
• Scilicet omnibus est labor impendendus, et omnes
• Cogendae in sulcum ac multa mercede domandae.
• Sed truncis oleae melius, propagine vites
• Respondent, solido Paphiae de robore myrtus;
• Plantis et durae coryli nascuntur, et ingens65
• Fraxinus, Herculeaeque arbos umbrosa coronae,
• Chaoniique Patris glandes; etiam ardua palma
• Nascitur et casus abies visura marinos.

• Inseritur vero et fetu nucis arbutus horrida,
• Et steriles platani malos gessere valentes;70

• Castaneae fagus, ornusque incanuit albo
• Flore piri, glandemque sues fregere sub ulmis.
• Nec modus inserere atque oculos imponere simplex:
• Nam qua se medio trudunt de cortice gemmae
• Et tenues rumpunt tunicas, angustus in ipso75
• Fit nodo sinus: huc aliena ex arbore germen
• Includunt, udoque docent inolescere libro:
• Aut rursum enodes trunci resecantur, et alte
• Finditur in solidum cuneis via, deinde feraces
• Plantae immittuntur: nec longum tempus, et ingens80
• Exiit ad caelum ramis felicibus arbos,
• Miraturque novas frondes et non sua poma.

• Praeterea genus haud unum, nec fortibus ulmis,
• Nec salici lotoque, neque Idaeis cyparissis,
• Nec pingues unam in faciem nascuntur olivae,85
• Orchades et radii et amara pausia baca,
• Pomaque et Alcinoi silvae, nec surculus idem
• Crustumiis Syriisque piris gravibusque volemis.
• Non eadem arboribus pendet vindemia nostris,
• Quam Methymnaeo carpit de palmite Lesbos;90
• Sunt Thasiae vites, sunt et Mareotides albae,
• Pinguibus hae terris habiles, levioribus illae;
• Et passo Psithia utilior, tenuisque Lageos
• Tentatura pedes olim vincturaque linguam;
• Purpureae preciaeque; et quo te carmine dicam,95
• Rhaetica? Nec cellis ideo contende Falernis.
• Sunt et Aminaeae vites, firmissima vina,
• Tmolius assurgit quibus et rex ipse Phanaeus;
• Argitisque minor, cui non certaverit ulla
• Aut tantum fluere aut totidem durare per annos.100
• Non ego te, dis et mensis accepta secundis,
• Transierim, Rhodia, et tumidis, Bumaste, racemis.
• Sed neque quam multae species, nec nomina quae sint,
• Est numerus: neque enim numero comprendere refert;
• Quem qui scire velit, Libyci velit aequoris idem105
• Discere quam multae Zephyro turbentur arenae,
• Aut ubi navigiis violentior incidit Eurus,
• Nosse quot Ionii veniant ad litora fluctus.

• Nec vero terrae ferre omnes omnia possunt.
• Fluminibus salices crassisque paludibus alni110

• Nascuntur, steriles saxosis montibus orni;
• Litora myrtetis laetissima; denique apertos
• Bacchus amat colles, Aquilonem et frigora taxi.
• Aspice et extremis domitum cultoribus orbem
• Eoasque domos Arabum pictosque Gelonos:115
• Divisae arboribus patriae. Sola India nigrum
• Fert ebenum, solis est turea virga Sabaeis.
• Quid tibi odorato referam sudantia ligno
• Balsamaque et bacas semper frondentis acanthi?
• Quid nemora Aethiopum molli canentia lana,120
• Velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres;
• Aut quos Oceano propior gerit India lucos,
• Extremi sinus orbis, ubi aëra vincere summum
• Arboris haud ullae iactu potuere sagittae?
• Et gens illa quidem sumptis non tarda pharetris.125
• Media fert tristes sucos tardumque saporem
• Felicis mali, quo non praesentius ullum,
• Pocula si quando saevae infecere novercae,
• Miscueruntque herbas et non innoxia verba,
• Auxilium venit ac membris agit atra venena.130
• Ipsa ingens arbos faciemque simillima lauro;
• Et, si non alium late iactaret odorem,
• Laurus erat: folia haud ullis labentia ventis;
• Flos ad prima tenax; animas et olentia Medi
• Ora fovent illo et senibus medicantur anhelis.135

• Sed neque Medorum silvae, ditissima terra,
• Nec pulcher Ganges atque auro turbidus Hermus
• Laudibus Italiae certent, non Bactra, neque Indi,
• Totaque turiferis Panchaia pinguis arenis.
• Haec loca non tauri spirantes naribus ignem140
• Invertere satis immanis dentibus hydri,
• Nec galeis densisque virum seges horruit hastis;
• Sed gravidae fruges et Bacchi Massicus humor
• Implevere; tenent oleae armentaque laeta.
• Hinc bellator equus campo sese arduus infert;145
• Hinc albi, Clitumne, greges et maxima taurus
• Victima, saepe tuo perfusi flumine sacro,
• Romanos ad templa deum duxere triumphos.
• Hic ver adsiduum atque alienis mensibus aestas:
• Bis gravidae pecudes, bis pomis utilis arbos.150

• At rabidae tigres absunt et saeva leonum
• Semina, nec miseros fallunt aconita legentes,
• Nec rapit immensos orbes per humum, neque tanto
• Squameus in spiram tractu se colligit anguis.
• Adde tot egregias urbes operumque laborem,155
• Tot congesta manu praeruptis oppida saxis,
• Fluminaque antiquos subter labentia muros.
• An mare quod supra memorem, quodque adluit infra?
• Anne lacus tantos?—te, Lari maxime, teque,
• Fluctibus et fremitu adsurgens Benace marino?160
• An memorem portus Lucrinoque addita claustra
• Atque indignatum magnis stridoribus aequor,
• Iulia qua ponto longe sonat unda refuso,
• Tyrrhenusque fretis immittitur aestus Avernis?
• Haec eadem argenti rivos aerisque metalla165
• Ostendit venis atque auro plurima fluxit.
• Haec genus acre virum, Marsos pubemque Sabellam,
• Adsuetumque malo Ligurem, Volscosque verutos
• Extulit; haec Decios, Marios, magnosque Camillos,
• Scipiadas duros bello, et te, maxime Caesar,170
• Qui nunc extremis Asiae iam victor in oris
• Inbellem avertis Romanis arcibus Indum.
• Salve, magna parens frugum, Saturnia tellus,
• Magna virum: tibi res antiquae laudis et artis
• Ingredior, sanctos ausus recludere fontes,175
• Ascraeumque cano Romana per oppida carmen.

• Nunc locus arvorum ingeniis, quae robora cuique,
• Quis color, et quae sit rebus natura ferendis.
• Difficiles primum terrae collesque maligni,
• Tenuis ubi argilla et dumosis calculus arvis,180
• Palladia gaudent silva vivacis olivae.
• Indicio est tractu surgens oleaster eodem
• Plurimus et strati bacis silvestribus agri.
• At quae pinguis humus dulcique uligine laeta,
• Quique frequens herbis et fertilis ubere campus—185
• Qualem saepe cava montis convalle solemus
• Despicere; huc summis liquuntur rupibus amnes
• Felicemque trahunt limum—quique editus Austro
• Et filicem curvis invisam pascit aratris:
• Hic tibi praevalidas olim multoque fluentes190

• Sufficiet Baccho vites, hic fertilis uvae,
• Hic laticis, qualem pateris libamus et auro,
• Inflavit cum pinguis ebur Tyrrhenus ad aras,
• Lancibus et pandis fumantia reddimus exta.
• Sin armenta magis studium vitulosque tueri,195
• Aut ovium fetum, aut urentes culta capellas,
• Saltus et saturi petito longinqua Tarenti,
• Et qualem infelix amisit Mantua campum,
• Pascentem niveos herboso flumine cycnos:
• Non liquidi gregibus fontes, non gramina deerunt;200
• Et quantum longis carpent armenta diebus,
• Exigua tantum gelidus ros nocte reponet.
• Nigra fere et presso pinguis sub vomere terra,
• Et cui putre solum,—namque hoc imitamur arando—
• Optima frumentis: non ullo ex aequore cernes205
• Plura domum tardis decedere plaustra iuvencis;
• Aut unde iratus silvam devexit arator
• Et nemora evertit multos ignava per annos,
• Antiquasque domos avium cum stirpibus imis
• Eruit: illae altum nidis petiere relictis,210
• At rudis enituit impulso vomere campus.
• Nam ieiuna quidem clivosi glarea ruris
• Vix humiles apibus casias roremque ministrat;
• Et tofus scaber et nigris exesa chelydris
• Creta negant alios aeque serpentibus agros215
• Dulcem ferre cibum et curvas praebere latebras.
• Quae tenuem exhalat nebulam fumosque volucres,
• Et bibit humorem et, cum vult, ex se ipsa remittit,
• Quaeque suo semper viridis se gramine vestit,
• Nec scabie et salsa laedit robigine ferrum,220
• Illa tibi laetis intexet vitibus ulmos,
• Illa ferax oleo est, illam experiere colendo
• Et facilem pecori et patientem vomeris unci.
• Talem dives arat Capua et vicina Vesevo
• Ora iugo et vacuis Clanius non aequus Acerris.225
• Nunc quo quamque modo possis cognoscere dicam.
• Rara sit an supra morem si densa requires,—
• Altera frumentis quoniam favet, altera Baccho,
• Densa magis Cereri, rarissima quaeque Lyaeo,—
• Ante locum capies oculis, alteque iubebis230

• In solido puteum demitti, omnemque repones
• Rursus humum, et pedibus summas aequabis arenas.
• Si deerunt, rarum, pecorique et vitibus almis
• Aptius uber erit; sin in sua posse negabunt
• Ire loca et scrobibus superabit terra repletis,235
• Spissus ager: glaebas cunctantes crassaque terga
• Expecta, et validis terram proscinde iuvencis.
• Salsa autem tellus et quae perhibetur amara,
• Frugibus infelix—ea nec mansuescit arando,
• Nec Baccho genus aut pomis sua nomina servat—240
• Tale dabit specimen: tu spisso vimine qualos
• Colaque prelorum fumosis deripe tectis;
• Huc ager ille malus dulcesque a fontibus undae
• Ad plenum calcentur: aqua eluctabitur omnis
• Scilicet, et grandes ibunt per vimina guttae;245
• At sapor indicium faciet manifestus, et ora
• Tristia temptantum senso torquebit amaror.
• Pinguis item quae sit tellus, hoc denique pacto
• Discimus: haud umquam manibus iactata fatiscit,
• Sed picis in morem ad digitos lentescit habendo.250
• Humida maiores herbas alit, ipsaque iusto
• Laetior. Ah, nimium ne sit mihi fertilis illa,
• Nec se praevalidam primis ostendat aristis!
• Quae gravis est ipso tacitam se pondere prodit,
• Quaeque levis. Promptum est oculis praediscere nigram,255
• Et quis cui color. At sceleratum exquirere frigus
• Difficile est: piceae tantum taxique nocentes
• Interdum aut hederae pandunt vestigia nigrae.

• His animadversis, terram multo ante memento
• Excoquere et magnos scrobibus concidere montes,260
• Ante supinatas Aquiloni ostendere glaebas,
• Quam laetum infodias vitis genus. Optima putri
• Arva solo: id venti curant gelidaeque pruinae
• Et labefacta movens robustus iugera fossor.
• Ac si quos haud ulla viros vigilantia fugit,265
• Ante locum similem exquirunt, ubi prima paretur
• Arboribus seges, et quo mox digesta feratur,
• Mutatam ignorent subito ne semina matrem.
• Quin etiam caeli regionem in cortice signant,
• Ut quo quaeque modo steterit, qua parte calores270

• Austrinos tulerit, quae terga obverterit axi,
• Restituant: adeo in teneris consuescere multum est.
• Collibus an plano melius sit ponere vitem,
• Quaere prius. Si pinguis agros metabere campi.
• Densa sere; in denso non segnior ubere Bacchus;275
• Sin tumulis adclive solum collesque supinos,
• Indulge ordinibus; nec setius omnis in unguem
• Arboribus positis secto via limite quadret.
• Ut saepe ingenti bello cum longa cohortes
• Explicuit legio, et campo stetit agmen aperto,280
• Directaeque acies, ac late fluctuat omnis
• Aere renidenti tellus, necdum horrida miscent
• Proelia, sed dubius mediis Mars errat in armis:
• Omnia sint paribus numeris dimensa viarum;
• Non animum modo uti pascat prospectus inanem,285
• Sed quia non aliter vires dabit omnibus aequas
• Terra, nec in vacuum poterunt se extendere rami.

• Forsitan et scrobibus quae sint fastigia quaeras:
• Ausim vel tenui vitem committere sulco.
• Altior ac penitus terrae defigitur arbos,290
• Aesculus in primis, quae quantum vertice ad auras
• Aetherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit;
• Ergo non hiemes illam, non flabra neque imbres
• Convellunt: immota manet, multosque nepotes,
• Multa virum volvens durando saecula vincit.295
• Tum fortis late ramos et bracchia pandens
• Huc illuc, media ipsa ingentem sustinet umbram.

• Neve tibi ad solem vergant vineta cadentem;
• Neve inter vites corylum sere; neve flagella
• Summa pete, aut summa defringe ex arbore plantas,—300
• Tantus amor terrae—neu ferro laede retunso
• Semina; neve oleae silvestres insere truncos:
• Nam saepe incautis pastoribus excidit ignis,
• Qui, furtim pingui primum sub cortice tectus,
• Robora comprendit, frondesque elapsus in altas305
• Ingentem caelo sonitum dedit; inde secutus
• Per ramos victor perque alta cacumina regnat,
• Et totum involvit flammis nemus, et ruit atram
• Ad caelum picea crassus caligine nubem,
• Praesertim si tempestas a vertice silvis310

• Incubuit, glomeratque ferens incendia ventus.
• Hoc ubi, non a stirpe valent caesaeque reverti
• Possunt atque ima similes revirescere terra:
• Infelix superat foliis oleaster amaris.

• Nec tibi tam prudens quisquam persuadeat auctor315
• Tellurem Borea rigidam spirante moveri.
• Rura gelu tum claudit hiemps; nec semine iacto
• Concretam patitur radicem affigere terrae.
• Optima vinetis satio, cum vere rubenti
• Candida venit avis longis invisa colubris,320
• Prima vel autumni sub frigora, cum rapidus Sol
• Nondum hiemem contingit equis, iam praeterit aestas.
• Ver adeo frondi nemorum, ver utile silvis;
• Vere tument terrae et genitalia semina poscunt.
• Tum pater omnipotens fecundis imbribus Aether325
• Coniugis in gremium laetae descendit, et omnes
• Magnus alit magno commixtus corpore fetus.
• Avia tum resonant avibus virgulta canoris,
• Et Venerem certis repetunt armenta diebus;
• Parturit almus ager, Zephyrique tepentibus auris330
• Laxant arva sinus; superat tener omnibus humor;
• Inque novos soles audent se germina tuto
• Credere, nec metuit surgentes pampinus Austros
• Aut actum caelo magnis Aquilonibus imbrem,
• Sed trudit gemmas et frondes explicat omnes.335
• Non alios prima crescentis origine mundi
• Inluxisse dies aliumve habuisse tenorem
• Crediderim: ver illud erat, ver magnus agebat
• Orbis, et hibernis parcebant flatibus Euri,
• Cum primae lucem pecudes hausere, virumque340
• Ferrea progenies duris caput extulit arvis,
• Immissaeque ferae silvis et sidera caelo.
• Nec res hunc tenerae possent perferre laborem,
• Si non tanta quies iret frigusque caloremque
• Inter, et exciperet caeli indulgentia terras.345

• Quod superest, quaecumque premes virgulta per agros
• Sparge fimo pingui, et multa memor occule terra,
• Aut lapidem bibulum aut squalentes infode conchas:
• Inter enim labentur aquae, tenuisque subibit
• Halitus, atque animos tollent sata. Iamque reperti,350

• Qui saxo super atque ingentis pondere testae
• Urguerent: hoc effusos munimen ad imbres,
• Hoc, ubi hiulca siti findit Canis aestifer arva.

• Seminibus positis, superest diducere terram
• Saepius ad capita, et duros iactare bidentes,355
• Aut presso exercere solum sub vomere, et ipsa
• Flectere luctantes inter vineta iuvencos;
• Tum leves calamos et rasae hastilia virgae
• Fraxineasque aptare sudes furcasque valentes,
• Viribus eniti quarum et contemnere ventos360
• Adsuescant, summasque sequi tabulata per ulmos.

• Ac dum prima novis adolescit frondibus aetas,
• Parcendum teneris, et dum se laetus ad auras
• Palmes agit laxis per purum immissus habenis,
• Ipsa acie nondum falcis temptanda, sed uncis365
• Carpendae manibus frondes, interque legendae.
• Inde ubi iam validis amplexae stirpibus ulmos
• Exierint, tum stringe comas, tum bracchia tonde:
• Ante reformidant ferrum; tum denique dura
• Exerce imperia, et ramos compesce fluentes.370

• Texendae saepes etiam et pecus omne tenendum,
• Praecipue dum frons tenera imprudensque laborum;
• Cui super indignas hiemes solemque potentem
• Silvestres uri adsidue capreaeque sequaces
• Inludunt, pascuntur oves avidaeque iuvencae.375
• Frigora nec tantum cana concreta pruina
• Aut gravis incumbens scopulis arentibus aestas,
• Quantum illi nocuere greges durique venenum
• Dentis et admorso signata in stirpe cicatrix.
• Non aliam ob culpam Baccho caper omnibus aris380
• Caeditur, et veteres ineunt proscaenia ludi,
• Praemiaque ingeniis pagos et compita circum
• Thesidae posuere, atque inter pocula laeti
• Mollibus in pratis unctos saluere per utres.
• Nec non Ausonii, Troia gens missa, coloni385
• Versibus incomptis ludunt risuque soluto,
• Oraque corticibus sumunt horrenda cavatis,
• Et te, Bacche, vocant per carmina laeta, tibique
• Oscilla ex alta suspendunt mollia pinu.
• Hinc omnis largo pubescit vinea fetu,390

• Complentur vallesque cavae saltusque profundi,
• Et quocumque deus circum caput egit honestum.
• Ergo rite suum Baccho dicemus honorem
• Carminibus patriis, lancesque et liba feremus,
• Et ductus cornu stabit sacer hircus ad aram,395
• Pinguiaque in veribus torrebimus exta colurnis.

• Est etiam ille labor curandis vitibus alter,
• Cui numquam exhausti satis est; namque omne quotannis
• Terque quaterque solum scindendum, glaebaque versis
• Aeternum frangenda bidentibus, omne levandum400
• Fronde nemus. Redit agricolis labor actus in orbem,
• Atque in se sua per vestigia volvitur annus.
• Ac iam olim, seras posuit cum vinea frondes,
• Frigidus et silvis Aquilo decussit honorem,
• Iam tum acer curas venientem extendit in annum405
• Rusticus, et curvo Saturni dente relictam
• Persequitur vitem attondens fingitque putando.
• Primus humum fodito, primus devecta cremato
• Sarmenta, et vallos primus sub tecta referto;
• Postremus metito. Bis vitibus ingruit umbra,410
• Bis segetem densis obducunt sentibus herbae;
• Durus uterque labor: laudato ingentia rura,
• Exiguum colito. Nec non etiam aspera rusci
• Vimina per silvam et ripis fluvialis arundo
• Caeditur, incultique exercet cura salicti.415
• Iam vinctae vites, iam falcem arbusta reponunt,
• Iam canit effectos extremus vinitor antes:
• Sollicitanda tamen tellus, pulvisque movendus,
• Et iam maturis metuendus Iuppiter uvis.

• Contra non ulla est oleis cultura; neque illae420
• Procurvam exspectant falcem rastrosque tenaces,
• Cum semel haeserunt arvis aurasque tulerunt;
• Ipsa satis tellus, cum dente recluditur unco,
• Sufficit humorem et gravidas cum vomere fruges.
• Hoc pinguem et placitam Paci nutritor olivam.425

• Poma quoque, ut primum truncos sensere valentes
• Et vires habuere suas, ad sidera raptim
• Vi propria nituntur opisque haud indiga nostrae.
• Nec minus interea fetu nemus omne gravescit,
• Sanguineisque inculta rubent aviaria bacis.430

• Tondentur cytisi, taedas silva alta ministrat,
• Pascunturque ignes nocturni et lumina fundunt.
• Et dubitant homines serere atque impendere curam?
• Quid maiora sequar? Salices humilesque genistae
• Aut illae pecori frondem aut pastoribus umbram435
• Sufficiunt, saepemque satis et pabula melli.
• Et iuvat undantem buxo spectare Cytorum
• Naryciaeque picis lucos, iuvat arva videre
• Non rastris, hominum non ulli obnoxia curae.
• Ipsae Caucaseo steriles in vertice silvae,440
• Quas animosi Euri adsidue franguntque feruntque,
• Dant alios aliae fetus, dant utile lignum
• Navigiis pinos, domibus cedrumque cupressosque.
• Hinc radios trivere rotis, hinc tympana plaustris
• Agricolae, et pandas ratibus posuere carinas.445
• Viminibus salices, fecundae frondibus ulmi,
• At myrtus validis hastilibus et bona bello
• Cornus; Ituraeos taxi torquentur in arcus.
• Nec tiliae leves aut torno rasile buxum
• Non formam accipiunt ferroque cavantur acuto.450
• Nec non et torrentem undam levis innatat alnus
• Missa Pado; nec non et apes examina condunt
• Corticibusque cavis vitiosaeque ilicis alvo.
• Quid memorandum aeque Baccheia dona tulerunt?
• Bacchus et ad culpam causas dedit; ille furentes455
• Centauros leto domuit, Rhoecumque Pholumque
• Et magno Hylaeum Lapithis cratere minantem.

• O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint,
• Agricolas, quibus ipsa procul discordibus armis
• Fundit humo facilem victum iustissima tellus!460
• Si non ingentem foribus domus alta superbis
• Mane salutantum totis vomit aedibus undam,
• Nec varios inhiant pulchra testudine postes,
• Inlusasque auro vestes Ephyreiaque aera,
• Alba neque Assyrio fucatur lana veneno,465
• Nec casia liquidi corrumpitur usus olivi;
• At secura quies et nescia fallere vita,
• Dives opum variarum, at latis otia fundis,
• Speluncae, vivique lacus, at frigida Tempe,
• Mugitusque boum, mollesque sub arbore somni470

• Non absunt; illic saltus ac lustra ferarum,
• Et patiens operum exiguoque adsueta iuventus,
• Sacra deum, sanctique patres: extrema per illos
• Iustitia excedens terris vestigia fecit.

• Me vero primum dulces ante omnia Musae,475
• Quarum sacra fero ingenti percussus amore,
• Accipiant, caelique vias et sidera monstrent,
• Defectus solis varios, lunaeque labores;
• Unde tremor terris, qua vi maria alta tumescant
• Obicibus ruptis rursusque in se ipsa residant,480
• Quid tantum Oceano properent se tinguere soles
• Hiberni, vel quae tardis mora noctibus obstet.
• Sin, has ne possim naturae accedere partes,
• Frigidus obstiterit circum praecordia sanguis,
• Rura mihi et rigui placeant in vallibus amnes;485
• Flumina amem silvasque inglorius. O ubi campi
• Spercheosque et virginibus bacchata Lacaenis
• Taygeta! o qui me gelidis convallibus Haemi
• Sistat, et ingenti ramorum protegat umbra?
• Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas,490
• Atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum
• Subiecit pedibus strepitumque Acherontis avari!
• Fortunatus et ille, deos qui novit agrestes,
• Panaque Silvanumque senem Nymphasque sorores.
• Illum non populi fasces, non purpura regum495
• Flexit et infidos agitans discordia fratres,
• Aut coniurato descendens Dacus ab Histro,
• Non res Romanae perituraque regna: neque ille
• Aut doluit miserans inopem aut invidit habenti.
• Quos rami fructus, quos ipsa volentia rura500
• Sponte tulere sua, carpsit, nec ferrea iura
• Insanumque forum aut populi tabularia vidit.
• Sollicitant alii remis freta caeca, ruuntque
• In ferrum, penetrant aulas et limina regum;
• Hic petit exeidiis urbem miserosque penates,505
• Ut gemma bibat et Sarrano dormiat ostro;
• Condit opes alius, defossoque incubat auro;
• Hic stupet attonitus Rostris; hunc plausus hiantem
• Per cuneos geminatus enim plebisque patrumque
• Corripuit; gaudent perfusi sanguine fratrum,510

• Exsilioque domos et dulcia limina mutant,
• Atque alio patriam quaerunt sub sole iacentem.
• Agricola incurvo terram dimovit aratro:
• Hinc anni labor, hinc patriam parvosque penates
• Sustinet, hinc armenta boum meritosque iuvencos.515
• Nec requies, quin aut pomis exuberet annus
• Aut fetu pecorum aut Cerealis mergite culmi,
• Proventuque oneret sulcos atque horrea vincat.
• Venit hiemps: teritur Sicyonia baca trapetis,
• Glande sues laeti redeunt, dant arbuta silvae:520
• Et varios ponit fetus autumnus, et alte
• Mitis in apricis coquitur vindemia saxis.
• Interea dulces pendent circum oscula nati,
• Casta pudicitiam servat domus, ubera vaccae
• Lactea dimittunt, pinguesque in gramine laeto525
• Inter se adversis luctantur cornibus haedi.
• Ipse dies agitat festos, fususque per herbam,
• Ignis ubi in medio et socii cratera coronant,
• Te libans, Lenaee, vocat, pecorisque magistris
• Velocis iaculi certamina ponit in ulmo,530
• Corporaque agresti nudant praedura palaestrae.
• Hanc olim veteres vitam coluere Sabini,
• Hanc Remus et frater, sic fortis Etruria crevit
• Scilicet, et rerum facta est pulcherrima Roma,
• Septemque una sibi muro circumdedit arces.535
• Ante etiam sceptrum Dictaei regis, et ante
• Impia quam caesis gens est epulata iuvencis,
• Aureus hanc vitam in terris Saturnus agebat;
• Necdum etiam audierant inflari classica, necdum
• Impositos duris crepitare incudibus enses.540

• Sed nos immensum spatiis confecimus aequor,
• Et iam tempus equum fumantia solvere colla.

THE GEORGICS OF VIRGIL.

BOOK II.

• Thus far of the culture of fields and the stars of the sky have I sung:
• Now sing I, Bacchus, of thee, of the copses thou movest among,
• Of the offspring born of the slowly-growing olive-tree.
• Hither, O Lord of the Winepress!—of bounty lavished by thee
• Here all things are full: heavy-laden the land is in greenness blowing5
• With autumn tendrils: the winefat foams with lips overflowing—
• Hither, O Lord of the Winepress, come: cast thou aside
• Thy buskins; with me in the new-spilt juice be thy white limbs dyed!

• Manifold be the ways of Nature in bringing her trees to birth:
• There be some that by no compulsion of any man from the earth10
• Of their own will spring, wide-thronging the plain and the river that strays
• Far-winding, as gently-curving osiers, the broom’s lithe sprays,
• The poplar, the willow whose grey shows white in the wind as it sways.
• From seed in the earth dropped some rise up, as the chestnut’s tower,
• As Jove’s tree, king of the woods where spreadeth its broad green bower,15
• And the oak, which of Greeks was accounted an oracle of Jove.
• There sprouts from the roots of others a crowded under-grove,
• As the cherry, the elm; so likewise the bay in Parnassian glade
• Shelters itself like a child ’neath its mother’s ample shade.
• In such mould from the beginning did Nature cast them; the brood20
• Of the forest and copse so burgeon, and every hallowed wood.
• There be methods on which by her own path man’s experience came:
• One severeth cuttings of trees from the mother’s tender frame,
• And setteth in furrows: another grower will earth up a line
• Of root-stocks, stakes four-cleft, or pales to a point cut fine.25
• While some plantations await green arches of layered shoots
• And living nurseries clinging to earth with unsevered roots,
• There be others that need no root, nor the pruner doubts to restore
• To the earth her own, and to trust to her lap top-shoots that he shore.
• Nay more, men cleave into truncheons an olive-stem—wondrous to say—30

• And an oil-bearing root from the dry wood soon is pushing its way.
• And we oft see one tree’s branches—and none the less will they bear—
• Transferred to another, see grafted apples borne on a pear
• Transformed, see stony cornels with red plums flushing fair.

• Come then, learn, yeomen, the training to each tree due from its birth;35
• Make mellow by culture meet the wilding fruits of the earth.
• Let the land lie not idle! O joy to plant with the vine’s green pride
• Ismara, clothe with the olive Taburnus’ mighty side!
• Come thou, on the steep path speed whereon I have set my feet,
• O thou my glory, O more than the half of my fame, as is meet,40
• Maecenas! O spread thy flying sails o’er the far sea-line.
• I look not to compass all this theme in verses of mine:
• Ah no, though a hundred tongues I had, and mouths five-score,
• And an iron voice! Come, sail by the verge of the uttermost shore,
• With the land close by. I will hold thee not here with fabulous song,45
• I will not in mazes of words detain thee, nor prelude long.

• Such plants as uplift themselves unbidden to borders of day,
• Fruitless indeed, but lusty and strong in their springing are they:
• For under the soil stirs nature’s strength. Yet even these,
• If ye graft, or transplant into spade-worked trenches the natural trees,50
• Cast off their wildwood spirit: by tillage untiring controlled
• Will they follow thee unreluctant, reshaped as thy will may mould.
• Nay, barren suckers withal, at the parent’s base which stand,
• Will do this, so they be planted wide upon clear clean land:
• But now tall frondage and boughs of the mother-tree overgloom55
• And rob it of fruit as it grows, and blast it in act to bloom.
• Moreover, the tree that springs from seed in the earth’s lap laid
• Groweth slowly: thy far-off children’s children perchance shall it shade:
• Its fruits degenerate, wholly forgetting the savour they bare,
• And the vine bears clusters unsightly, fit spoil for birds of the air.60
• In sooth upon all must labour be spent, their characters framed
• In the school of the trench, at uncounted cost must their wildness be tamed.
• But better in truncheons do olives answer, and vines in layers:
• For the myrtle of Paphos stakes of the heart-wood the grower prepares.
• From slips tough-fibred hazels spring, and the huge ash-trees,65
• And the trunks broad-shaded whose leaves are the garland of Hercules:
• The Chaonian Father’s acorns, the palm-tree’s stately daughters
• Are thus born, yea, and the fir that shall look upon perils of waters.
• Nay more, the shaggy arbute is grafted with babe-slips ta’en
• From the walnut; vigorous apples are grown on the barren plane.70

• A beech bears chestnuts, a mountain-ash the silver-shine
• Of pear-blossom; under an elm have acorns been crushed by swine.
• Not one and the same are the methods of grafting and insetting “eyes:”
• For where, pushing forth from the midst of the bark, the soft buds rise,
• And burst their filmy coats, even here in the knot’s mid-wood75
• Is a slit made: deeply in this from an alien tree is a bud
• Enclosed, and the life of the bark and its sap is it taught to share:
• Or again, cut open are knotless stems, and a path cleft there
• With wedges into the heart-wood; therein doth the gardener place
• Slips of a fruit-bearing tree: thereafter in no long space80
• With fertile branches a noble tree hath skyward grown,
• And marvels at stranger boughs and fruits that seem not her own.

• Moreover, of no one kind all sturdy elm-trees are,
• Nor willow, nor lotus, nor cypresses born upon Ida afar;
• Nor do olives in all their fatness after one pattern grow:85
• There be round-berried, spindle-berried, and Pausians bitter enow.
• Nor Alcinous’ orchards have apples alike, nor the same shoot bears
• Crustumian pears and Syrian, and heavy warden-pears.
• Nor hangs from our nursing-trees the selfsame vintage-fruit
• As Lesbos plucketh away from Methymna’s green vine-shoot.90
• There be vines of Thasos, and vines Mareotic whose grapes are white,
• These for a rich loam meet, and those for a soil more light.
• The Psithian is fitter for raisin-wine, the Lagean is thin,
• Yet nets for the feet and snares for the babbling tongue are therein.
• There be purple grapes and the early:—O Rhaetian, in what high strain95
• Shall I hymn thee? Yet vie not with wines that Falernian vaults contain.
• Aminaean vines are there also, whose wines be the soundest of all;
• Before them the Tmolian and royal Phanaean in reverence fall;
• And the lesser Argitis: none with the flowing abundance may vie
• Of its juice, nor in strength to last while years on years go by.100
• O Rhodian, dear to the Gods and to banqueters merry with wine,
• Let me pass thee not by, nor Bumastus the heavy-clustered vine.
• But of all the manifold kinds, nay, even of the names they bear,
• No number there is; yea, even to count them none need care.
• Let who wishes to know them inquire how many grains of sand105
• Are tossed and whirled by the west-wind over the Libyan land:
• Let him learn, when the east-wind swoops on the ships with maddened roar,
• How many waves on Ionia’s sea roll up to the shore.

• Nor in sooth can all lands bear all manner of trees for men.
• By the river the willow is born, and amidst of the miry fen110

• The alder; the barren ashes on rock-strewn mountains grow;
• Sea-shores are with myrtles gay; hills bare to the sun’s warm glow
• The vine loves; dear to the yew is the north with its ice and snow.
• Mark how the world to her uttermost bounds is by tillers subdued,
• Unto Araby’s morningland homes, to the painted Gelonians rude.115
• Each several land hath its trees. Black ebony groweth alone
• In India; only Sabaeans the wand of frankincense own.
• Why should I tell thee the story of balms from an odorous stem
• That ooze?—of the evergreen thorn which shining berries begem?
• Why tell of the Aethiop woods all silvered with gossamer wool?—120
• What filmy fleeces from leaves the Serians comb and cull?—
• Of the forests that nigher than all unto Ocean in India grow
• By the uttermost gulf of the world, where no shaft shot from a bow
• Can speed through the highways of air its flight over any tree?
• Yet deft are the folk of the land in the quiver’s mastery.125
• The citron’s sharp sour juice, whose taste long lingereth,
• Media bears. There is naught more potent to save thee from death,
• Whensoever the cup hath been drugged by a ruthless stepdame’s spite,
• And poison-herbs have been mingled with spells of deadly might;
• Then it comes to thine help, and the baleful venom it drives from thy frame.130
• Like a giant laurel the tree is, in outward show the same;
• And, but for the strange sweet scent wide-flung on the air all round,
• A laurel it were: its leaves can no wind cast to the ground:
• Its flower cleaves close: with its essences Medes are wont to scent
• Rank breath, and relief to the asthma of age thereby is lent.135

• But neither the Median forests, how rich soever their land,
• Neither Ganges the lovely, nor Hermus cloudy with golden sand,
• With Italy’s glories may vie, nor Bactria, no, nor Ind,
• Nor Eldorado, whose incense-dust breathes rich on the wind.
• This land no bulls outsnorting flame ever furrowed, when140
• Therein had been sown the teeth of the monster Worm of the Fen,
• Nor a harvest hath bristled with helmets and serried spears of men.
• But her burden is heavy fruitage, with blood of the Massic vine
• Is she filled; she is thronged with olives, she laugheth with herds of kine.
• Here proudly paceth and pranceth the war-steed over the plain:145
• Thy milk-white cattle, Clitumnus, thy stately bull, to be slain
• On the altar, oft-times bathed in thine hallowing waters, come
• To lead to the high Gods’ temples the triumph-processions of Rome.
• Here is eternal spring, and in strange months summer’s glow:
• Twice yearly the cattle breed, and the trees with fruit bend low.150

• No ravening tigers be there, no ruthless lion-brood;
• No aconite cheateth the hapless who gather them herbs for food.
• No scale-clad python’s measureless coils like lightning sweep
• O’er the earth, nor he gathers his trailing spires for the deadly leap.
• O think of all those goodly cities uppiled by the hand155
• Of toiling man, of the burgs on her scarpéd cliffs that stand,
• Of the rivers that side ’neath their walls, the streams of a storied land!
• Shall I tell of her wave-washed coasts, of her western, her eastern sea,
• Of her far-spread lakes?—of thee, O mighty Larius, thee,
• Benacus, whose waves heave sea-like, and roar in stormy glee?160
• Shall I tell of thine havens, the barriers set to the Lucrine mere,
• Of the sea with indignant crash of his waters clamouring near,
• Where echoes the Julian wave to the back-recoiling sweep
• Of the main, and through straits of Avernus flow tides of the Tyrrhene deep?
• Streamlets of silver and ores of copper hath this land showed165
• In gleaming veins, yea, also with gold hath abundantly flowed.
• She hath reared her a race of heroes, of Marsians, Sabines strong,
• Of the hardship-inured Ligurians, the Volscian spearman-throng,
• Reared many a Decius, Marius, Camillus great in war,
• Reared Scipios battle-steadfast, and thee, her mightiest far,170
• Conqueror Caesar, who now, where on Asia’s far verge foam
• The seas, dost beat back craven Indians from ramparts of Rome.
• Hail, mighty mother of harvests! Hail, Saturnian soil,
• Mother of Heroes! Thy story of old renown and of toil
• I begin. I have dared to unseal the Muses’ holy spring,175
• And the song that Hesiod sang through Roman towns do I sing.

• Now of the characters of diverse soils, of their power,
• Will we speak, of their colours, the fruits they can bear by nature’s dower.
• First, then, ground unresponsive, and hill-slopes evil-willed,
• Where lean marl lies, and with pebbles the thorny copses are filled,180
• Yet joy in plantations of long-lived olives to Pallas dear.
• ’Tis a sign thereof when on that same tract groweth far and near
• The oleaster, and fields with its wilding berries are strown.
• But where there is rich soil, gladdened with moisture sweet, overgrown
• With herbage, levels fat with fertility—such as we spy185
• Oft, where far down ’twixt the mountains cup-like hollows lie,
• And whither from crag-crests streams trickle down, and the drift-mud silted
• Cometh fertility-laden;—and land to the south uptilted,
• Which nourisheth wiry ferns that trammel the curved ploughshare,
• Vigorous vines that shall stream with wine enough and to spare190

• This soil shall hereafter yield thee: of grapes shall it bear good store,
• Good store of the juice that from golden chalices forth we pour
• When the full-fed Tuscan blows by the altar his ivory horn,
• And on trenchers broad is the steaming flesh of our offerings borne.
• But and if thy desire be rather to kine, and their calves thou wouldst keep,195
• Or goats which ruin the vineyard, or fain wouldst breed thee sheep,
• Hie thee to glades by Tarentum the fertile stretching afar,
• And to meads such as Mantua lost to her sorrow after the war,
• Which feed the snow-white swans with the grasses that trail in the river.
• There limpid fountains shall fail not thy flocks, nor pasture-grass ever;200
• And how much soever the cattle may crop in a long day’s space,
• All this shall the cool dewfall of one short night replace.
• Earth black and seeming-greasy beneath the ploughshare’s weight,
• And whose soil is crumbly—for this by ploughing we imitate,—
• Is for corn-crops best,—from no manner of tilth-land shalt thou see205
• Thy steers to the homestead draw more wains heaped heavily—
• Or the land which the wrathful ploughman hath swept of timber clear,
• And hath felled the trees that have idly stood through many a year,
• And ancient homes of birds by the roots from the earth doth he tear:
• Forsaking their ruined nests they have fled to the heights of the air,210
• But the plain untilled ere this is gleaming bright ’neath the share.
• But the hungry gravel-soils on the slope of a hill that lie,
• Dwarf-spurge and rosemary for thy bees shall scarce supply.
• And the rugged tufa and chalk, where the viper hath gnawed her a nest,
• Defy all other lands to furnish the food loved best215
• Of serpents, and labyrinthine dens for the venomous pest.
• A soil that breathes out phantom mists and a fume light-flying,
• That drinks in rain and restores it untrenched, of its own will drying,
• Which arrayeth itself in a mantle of grass that is green evermore,
• Nor marreth iron with a scurf of salt rust scaling it o’er,220
• That land shall garland thine elms with the gems of the jubilant vine,
• Of oil shall be prodigal: thou shalt prove it by tillage of thine
• Kindly unto thy flock; it shall welcome the tusk of the plough.
• Such land rich Capua tills, and the shore ’neath Vesuvius’ brow,
• And Clanius ever unkind to Acerrae dispeopled now.225

• Now will I tell how the nature of diverse soils may be known,
• Be it light or unwontedly stiff that thou seekest for needs of thine own.
• For corn-crops meet is the one, the other shall flow with wine:
• The stiff is for Ceres, the lightest be all for the Lord of the Vine.
• Choose thou a spot with thine eyes, bid sink thee a pit down deep230

• In ground unbroken; thereafter throw back all that heap
• Of mould thereinto, and trample the surface down of the pit.
• If it sink below the brim, for the gracious vine is it fit
• And for pasture; but if it refuse to return to its place again,
• And when thou hast filled thy trench a mound of earth remain,235
• For a stiff soil’s stubborn clods and for massive ridges prepare,
• And strong be the steers that shall cleave that tilth-land with the share.
• But land that is salt—“sour land” the yeoman accounteth the same—
• Is for crops unmeet; no ploughing its evil nature may tame,
• Nor grapes grown there nor fruits will answer true to their name.240
• Now this is the sign thereof: pluck down from thy smoke-grimed roof
• Baskets and straining-sieves of the plaited osier tough;
• These fill with the evil soil, and with fountain-water sweet
• Soak it, and tread down. All that water from ’neath thy feet
• Shall struggle in great drops forth, and out through the wickerwork press:245
• And its savour shall give clear token, shall warp with loathing’s stress
• The mouths of such as essay to taste its bitterness.
• What soil moreover is fat by this device do we know:
• It breaks not apart when tossed from hand to hand to and fro,
• But in fashion of pitch to the fingers it cleaves when they deal with it so.250
• On damp soil taller the weeds are, and all too rankly grow.
• Ah, not by excess of fertility thus be my land betrayed,
• Nor with over-lusty life may it quicken the new-born blade!
• By the silent test of weight what soil is heavy is learned,
• Or what is light. By thine eyes black soil at a glance is discerned,255
• Yea, the colours of all. But of blasting cold the traces be few
• In a soil: yet sometimes there pitch-pines and the baleful yew,
• Or the dark-leaved ivy’s spreading fingers shall lend thee a clue.
• Note all these things, and bethink thee betimes in the sun to dry
• Thy land, with trenches and furrows to score the hill-slopes high,260
• And to lay the upturned clods all bare to the north-wind cold,
• Ere thou plant the vine’s glad children. Fields of crumbling mould
• Be the best: the wind and the chill frost work to render them so
• With the brawny delver who tosseth and stirreth the earth to and fro.
• Nay, men who will let slip no device of watchful care265
• Choose out betimes a place, and prepare them a nursery there
• Of soil like that where the vines shall soon be orderly ranged,
• Lest the babe-trees recognise not the mother suddenly changed.
• Nay, even the quarters of heaven do men on the young bark score,
• That, according as each tree faced, which side soever bore270

• The heat of the south, and turned its back to the northern pole,
• So they might plant it, so potent is early habit’s control.

• If on hills or on level ground thy vine-rows better shall stand
• Ask thyself first. For a fertile plain if thy vineyard be planned,
• Plant closely; from vines set thick no scantier harvests we reap.275
• But on sloping ground of knolls and on hillsides couched as in sleep
• Give ample space to the ranks: yet still each alley of vines
• Must be planned with angles squared, must be drawn with straight-ruled lines.
• As often in strife Titanic when legions in long array
• Deploy their cohorts, and columns are ranged in the plain for the fray,280
• Drawn out is the battle-line; like a billowy sea earth shows
• As the bronze flashes back to the sun, nor as yet do the grim fronts close
• In the grapple, but wavers the War-god as doubtful between two foes.
• Let alleys in equal measurement meted to all be assigned,
• Not merely to pleasure the eye, nor for joy of a vacant mind;285
• But only thus impartially earth upon all will bestow
• Of her strength, and through clear air-space their branches the vines will throw.

• Thou wouldst haply inquire what depth and dip to a trench we grant.
• A vine in never so shallow a furrow I fearlessly plant;
• But deeper-set is the tree, is rooted in earth far down,290
• The oak above all: as high to the heaven as it lifteth its crown
• Through the air, so deeply its roots through the darkness Hadesward go;
• And so no wintry storms, no rains, no blasts that blow
• Can upwrench it: unmoved it abides, sees children’s children die
• Through long generations of men as the victor years roll by.295
• He spreadeth his arms in his strength and his boughs on every side,
• And his central tower upbears a forest of shade flung wide.

• See that thou let not thy vineyards slope to the dying day,
• Nor plant thou the hazel between the vines, neither prune away
• The highest shoots, nor break from the tree any topmost spray,—300
• So strong is their love of earth,—neither bruise the tender bud
• With a blunt knife: plant not between them truncheons of wild olive-wood;
• For oftentimes by the heedless shepherd is dropped a spark
• Which, stealthily hiding at first beneath the oily bark,
• Layeth hold on the heart-wood: forth over leaf and spray doth it glide,305
• Till loudly it crackles skyward: along the boughs doth it ride
• Victorious, and stretcheth from tree-top to tree-top its sceptre of fire,
• Wraps all the plantation in flames, and streams ever thicker and higher
• Uptossing an eddying cloud of pitchy gloom to the sky;
• Then chiefly, if on the forest a tempest have swooped from on high,310

• And a great wind rolleth and sweepeth the conflagration on.
• Thereafter the tree-stocks have no strength; their power is gone,
• Though ye cut them back, of reviving, of springing green from the ground
• As before: oleaster barren and bitter reigns all round.

• Hold no man so wise that his counsel should move thee to break with the share315
• The frost-stiffened earth when the north-wind is breathing death through the air.
• Then winter prisons the land in ice; yea, seed may ye fling,
• But he suffereth not the frost-numbed root to the earth to cling.
• ’Tis the vine’s best planting-season, when cometh in spring’s blush-glow
• The radiant snow-white bird, the long-backed viper’s foe;320
• Or hard on the Fall’s first chill, when the fiery-footed team
• Of the sun not yet touch winter, when summer fleets as a dream.
• With blessing to woodland-frondage and forest Spring returns.
• In spring earth heaves with desire, for the seed life-laden she yearns:
• Then Heaven, the Father almighty, in quickening showers descends325
• Into the lap of his gladsome bride: in his might he blends
• With her mighty frame, and to all her offspring life doth he bring;
• Then pathless copses with music of birds re-echoing ring;
• And the beasts are rekindled with love in the days ordained of the Spring.
• The land with her boons is in travail, to west-winds warmly blowing330
• Fields open their arms; all things are with delicate sap overflowing.
• In the suns new-born all seedlings safely and fearlessly trust.
• No vine-shoot dreadeth the south-wind’s suddenly rising gust,
• Or the rain-storm that over the sky the mighty north-wind hurls:
• But each pushes gem-buds forth, and her green leaf-banners unfurls.335
• None other, I fain would believe, were the sunlit days that began
• In the dawn of the infant creation, nor other the course that they ran.
• Ah, that was a spring indeed! Spring’s festival-tide was kept
• By the whole world’s round: all wintry blasts of the east-wind slept
• When the first-born cattle drank in like wine the sunlight, and stood340
• With heads erect on the earth’s firm floor man’s iron brood.
• Wild things were let loose in the forests, stars blossomed in fields of the sky.
• Those soft young lives ’neath their burden of toil would faint and die,
• Had not so blessèd a restful space ’twixt cold been given
• And heat, and earth been embraced by the grace and the mercy of Heaven.345

• For the rest, whatsoever plantations throughout thy lands thou wilt set,
• To spread rich dung and to bury it deeply thou shalt not forget,
• Nor to dig in porous stone or the sea-shell rugged of scale;
• For the rains will sink between them, and phantom vapours exhale,
• And so shall the slips take courage: and ere now men have I known350

• To press them down ’neath the weight of a massy tile or a stone.
• This they devised for a screen against wide-streaming rain,
• Or the Dogstar’s heat, when gapeth with thirsty lips the plain.

• When the seedlings are set, it remaineth again and again to throw
• The mounded earth to their crowns, and to swing the stubborn hoe,355
• Or to labour the ground with the deep-driven share, and to wheel to and fro
• Thy straining steers between thy vines, through row after row,
• And, again, to fit smooth reeds together, and wand-shafts peeled,
• And ashwood staves, and props whose forked heads will not yield,
• By the strength whereof they shall upward strain, and shall learn to despise360
• The winds, and from story to story of those elm-towers shall rise.

• In the growing-time of the early youth of the young green things,
• Be to their tenderness gentle, and while the glad shoot springs
• Upward, as though sped on loose-reined through cloudless air,
• Not yet with the edge of the pruning-hook be it touched, but with care365
• Pluck away with thy fingers the shoots, and thin the foliage there.
• Then, when they have clasped the elm with wiry trailer and stem,
• And have shot up, strip their tresses, and lop the arms of them.
• Till then do they dread the steel, but now at the last do thou raise
• Authority’s standard, and crush the rebellion of trailing sprays.370

• Thou must weave for thee hurdles, and barriers of these against all sheep set.
• While the tender leaf of the labours awaiting it dreams not yet,
• Nor how worse than unmerited storms or than tyrannous suns are the roes
• Persistently trespassing: out of the woods come buffaloes
• To mock its endeavours: sheep will make it their grazing-ground,375
• And greedy heifers. Nor winter with hoary frost hard-bound,
• Nor summer, on scorched rocks heavily brooding, do such despite
• To the vine, as the flocks, for their poisonous teeth with a pestilence smite
• The plants: there is death in the scar that is left on the stem by their bite.
• For none other crime on the Wine-god’s altar the goat do they slay,380
• What time on the stage steps forth the immemorial play,
• And through village and hamlet the sons of Theseus ordain the prize
• For the contest of wits, and blithe of heart from the wine-cup rise
• To dance on the wine-skin oiled, on the mead’s soft grass which lies.
• And Ausonia’s yeomen, whose sires were the remnant from Troy that remained,
• With uncouth verses sport and with laughter unrestrained.
• They don misfeatured masks of the hollowed bark of the tree,
• And in pauses of jubilant song, O Bacchus, they call upon thee;
• And soft babe-faces of thee do they hang from the lofty pine.
• Herefrom with abundant increase bloometh ever the vine;390

• And filled is the cup-like valley, the mountain-cradled dell,
• Wheresoever the God’s sweet face turns, casting fertility’s spell.
• Meetly therefore the honour to Bacchus due will we sing
• In hymns ancestral, the platters of cakes unto him will we bring:
• And led by the horns shall the doomed he-goat by the altar stand,395
• And on hazelwood spits fat inwards shall broil o’er the blazing brand.

• For the care of thy vines remaineth withal that other toil
• Whereon no labour expended sufficeth; for all the soil
• Must thrice and four times yearly be ploughed, and ever and aye
• With the swinging mattock the clods must be broken, and stripped away400
• The leaves’ excess. The husbandman’s toil is an endless round
• Ever renewed as the feet of the year are on old tracks found.
• Ay, even when vines have cast late-lingering leaves to the ground,
• And the chill North strippeth the woods of their crown of glory bare;
• Even then is the tireless yeoman onward stretching his care405
• To the coming year, presses onward with Saturn’s curving bill
• To lop the leafless vine, and by pruning shape to his will.
• Be the first to dig the soil, be the first on the balefire to cast
• Waste loppings, and first to house vine-props when the vintage is past;
• But be latest to gather the grapes. Twice yearly the shade thickens close,
• Twice yearly with thistle and thorn the weed-growth smothers the rows:
• Sore toil both lay upon thee. Ay, dream broad acres be good,
• But few do thou till! Moreover, the rough broom-sprays in the wood
• Must be cut, and the reed on the bank beside the river’s flow:
• And the osier-bed, albeit untilled, needs care enow.415
• At last are the vines tied up, the pruning-knife drops from the hand,
• The last vinedresser sings o’er the rows that finished stand—
• Yet rest cometh not; the soil must be humoured, the mould must be stirred,
• And in fancy the rush of the rain on the ripened clusters is heard.

• Contrariwise, no need have olives of culture; they420
• Nor look for the pruning-hook’s sweep, nor the mattock’s unyielding sway,
• When once they are rooted in earth, and have stood the rush of the air.
• The earth herself, when her breast is laid by the curved plough bare,
• Giveth moisture in plenty, the touch of the share breeds heavy increase.
• So shalt thou nurture the olive whose fatness is dear unto Peace.425

• Orchard-trees too, so soon as they feel through their stems strength rise,
• And have gotten them vigour, upward swiftly, as seeking the skies,
• By their own power climb, and they have no need of human aid.
• Nor less with fruit are the boughs of all woods earthward weighed;
• Wild haunts of birds are flushing with berries red as blood:430

• Mown is the cytisus, torches are given by the tall pine-wood,
• And the nightlong fires are fed; far streams their ruddy glare.
• And hesitate men to plant and to lavish on trees all care?
• Why dwell on the great trees only?—the osier, the lowly broom
• Yield leaves for the flock and the shepherd with cool shade overgloom:435
• Hedges for crops they supply, and they pasture the honey-bees.
• Fain would I gaze on Cytorus’ billows of dark box-trees,
• On groves of Narycian pine: full fain over fields would I gaze
• That owe no debt to the mattock, nor any of mortal race!
• Yea, even the fruitless forests high upon Caucasus’ crest,440
• Which the furious east-winds shatter and toss to and fro without rest,
• Give each what he beareth; wood for the service of man they bestow,
• Give pines for the ships, and for dwellings the cedar and cypress they grow.
• From one do the husbandmen turn wheel-spokes, from one solid wheels
• For wains, from another they lay for the ships long curving keels.445
• Withs spring from the hazels, in leafage the elm-trees fruitful are,
• In strong spear-shafts the myrtle and cornel trusty in war.
• Bent are the limbs of the yew into Ituraean bows:
• On the linden smooth and on lathe-turned box such form we impose
• As we will, and the steel of the chisel hollows the yielding wood.450
• Yea, also the alder-trunk swims light on the rushing flood
• Sped down the Po; yea, also the bees hide swarm and comb
• Deep in the caverned bark or the heart of a mouldering holm.
• What boons more worthy of praise doth Bacchus’ bounty bestow?
• Nay, Bacchus hath given occasion for blame: it was he laid low455
• The Centaurs in death, and Rhoecus, to hell sped Pholus’ soul,
• Slew Hylaeus in act to hurl at the Lapiths the huge wine-bowl.

• Ah, knew they their happiness, all too favoured the yeomen are,
• They for whom earth most righteous, from clash of arms afar,
• From the soil doth outlavish ungrudged for all life’s needs of her store!460
• What though no stately mansion through lordly portals pour
• Morning by morning a sea of clients from court and hall,
• Nor with parted lips on the cloudy shell upon door-posts tall
• Men gaze, nor on vests gold-broidered, nor bronzes from Ephyre’s strand,
• Nor on white wool dyed with the poison-drug of Morning-land,465
• Nor by casia spoiled oil-olive from lawful service is banned.
• But theirs is the peace unharassed, the life that has nothing to hide,
• That has manifold store, the restfulness of landscapes wide,
• Dim caverns and spring-fed meres, cool Tempe’s whispering glade,
• Slumbrous lowing of cattle, and balmy sleep ’neath the shade,470

• All, all are there—wood-lawns and coverts where wild things lie,
• Men that are strong to labour, are hardened to poverty.
• There Gods are worshipped, there age is revered. Or ever she passed
• From earth, amid these folk Justice imprinted her footfalls last.

• But chiefly me may the Muses, to me above all things dear,475
• Who have thrilled me with deep strong love, whose sacred things I bear,
• Receive, show the highways of heaven, the stars, tell wherefore at noon
• The sun dies, wherefore in travail is darkened the face of the moon,
• Whence cometh the quaking of earth, by what force heave deep seas
• Dashing their barriers down, and thereafter sink to peace,480
• Why hasten so swiftly the suns of winter to quench their heat
• In ocean, what hindrance trammels the night’s slow-trailing feet.
• But and if I may not draw near great Nature’s mysteries,
• For that clogged is mine heart with the blood whose channels around it freeze,
• Dear to me then be the fields, be the streams through the valleys that flow,485
• My fameless love upon rivers be set, and on forests:—and oh
• For the low-lying meads by Spercheius, for revels of Spartan maids
• On Taygetus! Oh were I standing mid Haemus’ cool green glades,
• That he covered mine head with the Titan shield of his forest-shades!
• Oh happy, whose heart hath attained Creation’s secret to know,490
• Who hath trampled all haunting fears underfoot, nor dreadeth the blow
• Of Fate the relentless, the roar of insatiate Acheron’s flow!
• Oh favoured is he who knoweth the Gods of the green wild land,
• The Lords of the Forest and Grove, and the Nymphs, their sister-band!
• He stoops not to consuls’ axes, he bows not to purple of kings,495
• He recks not of hate that the hearts of faithless brethren wrings,
• Nor of leagues by the Danube, or Dacians that down from their mountains descend,
• Nor hath trembled for Rome’s dark fortune, for empires nigh to their end.
• No poverty sees he to pity, no rich men to envy for aught.
• He hath gathered the fruits of the tree-bough, the willing tribute brought500
• By the fields, he hath seen no statutes as iron unyielding-wrought,
• Nor hath looked on the madding Forum, the archives destiny-fraught.
• Others may tempt with oars the printless sea, may fling
• Their lives to the sword, may press through portals and halls of a king.
• This traitor hath ruined his country, hath blasted her homes, thereby505
• To drink from a jewelled chalice, on Orient purple to lie:
• That fool hoards up his wealth, and broods o’er his buried gold:
• That simple-one gazes rapt on the rostra: the loud cheers rolled
• Down the theatre-seats, as Fathers and people acclaiming stood,
• Have entranced yon man: men drench them with joy in their brethren’s blood:510

• Into exile from home and its sweet, sweet threshold some have gone
• Seeking a country that lieth beneath an alien sun.
• But the husbandman furrows the land with his curved ploughshare; herefrom
• Comes the toil of his year; ’tis the stay of his country and lowly home;
• It feedeth the herds of his kine and the steers that earn their keep;515
• And her fruits without surcease doth the year in his bosom heap.
• With offspring of flocks she dowers him, with sheaves from Ceres’ store;
• With increase she loadeth the furrows, till barns can hold no more.
• Cometh winter—the berry of Sicyon crushed in the oil-press streams;
• Swine troop home fat from the acorns, in woods the arbute gleams.520
• Fruits manifold autumn lays at his feet: on the rock sun-glowing
• High up is the vintage hanging, to mellow ripeness growing.
• His sweet little children the while around him for kisses cling.
• The home is a stronghold of modesty chaste. To the byre kine bring
• Udders that heavily droop: fat kids on the lush grass play,525
• As one with another they wrestle with horns in mimic fray.
• Himself upon feast-days resteth: outstretched on the grass-grown ground,
• Where crackles the fire in the midst, and the bowl by his comrades is crowned,
• With libations he calleth on thee, O Winefat-lord. On the bark
• Of the elm for the swift dart-throwing of shepherds he scoreth a mark;530
• And they bare their iron limbs for the rustic wrestlers’ strife.
• In far-off days did the olden Sabines live such life;
• So Remus lived, and his brother; Etruria thus waxed strong
• Of a surety, and Rome became a glory the nations among.
• Of cities alone with a rampart she girdled citadels seven.535
• Yea, ere the King Dictaean had grasped the sceptre of Heaven,
• Ere an impious race for their banquets of blood the oxen slew,
• Such life as this upon earth King Saturn the Golden knew.
• Nor yet had they heard war-clarions blown, nor hearkened the clang
• Of the forging, when laid on the stubborn anvils the sword-blades rang.540

• But now in the course have we covered a boundless breadth of plain:
• Time is it from reeking necks of the horses to loosen the rein.

P. VERGILI MARONIS GEORGICON

LIBER TERTIUS.

• Te quoque, magna Pales, et te memorande canemus
• Pastor ab Amphryso, vos, silvae amnesque Lycaei.
• Cetera, quae vacuas tenuissent carmine mentes,
• Omnia iam volgata: quis aut Eurysthea durum,
• Aut inlaudati nescit Busiridis aras?5
• Cui non dictus Hylas puer, et Latonia Delos,
• Hippodameque, humeroque Pelops insignis eburno,
• Acer equis? temptanda via est, qua me quoque possim
• Tollere humo victorque virum volitare per ora.
• Primus ego in patriam mecum, modo vita supersit,10
• Aonio rediens deducam vertice Musas;
• Primus Idumaeas referam tibi, Mantua, palmas,
• Et viridi in campo templum de marmore ponam
• Propter aquam, tardis ingens ubi flexibus errat
• Mincius, et tenera praetexit harundine ripas.15
• In medio mihi Caesar erit templumque tenebit.
• Illi victor ego et Tyrio conspectus in ostro
• Centum quadriiugos agitabo ad flumina currus.
• Cuncta mihi, Alpheum linquens lucosque Molorchi,
• Cursibus et crudo decernet Graecia caestu.20
• Ipse caput tonsae foliis ornatus olivae
• Dona feram. Iam nunc sollemnes ducere pompas
• Ad delubra iuvat caesosque videre iuvencos;
• Vel scaena ut versis discedat frontibus, utque
• Purpurea intexti tollant aulaea Britanni.25
• In foribus pugnam ex auro solidoque elephanto
• Gangaridum faciam victorisque arma Quirini,
• Atque hic undantem bello magnumque fluentem
• Nilum, ac navali surgentes aere columnas.
• Addam urbes Asiae domitas pulsumque Niphaten30

• Fidentemque fuga Parthum versisque sagittis,
• Et duo rapta manu diverso ex hoste tropaea
• Bisque triumphatas utroque ab litore gentes.
• Stabunt et Parii lapides, spirantia signa,
• Assaraci proles demissaeque ab Iove gentis35
• Nomina, Trosque parens et Troiae Cynthius auctor.
• Invidia infelix Furias amnemque severum
• Cocyti metuet, tortosque Ixionis angues
• Immanemque rotam, et non exsuperabile saxum.
• Interea Dryadum silvas saltusque sequamur40
• Intactos, tua, Maecenas, haud mollia iussa.
• Te sine nil altum mens incohat; en age segnes
• Rumpe moras; vocat ingenti clamore Cithaeron
• Taygetique canes domitrixque Epidaurus equorum,
• Et vox adsensu nemorum ingeminata remugit.45
• Mox tamen ardentes accingar dicere pugnas
• Caesaris, et nomen fama tot ferre per annos,
• Tithoni prima quot abest ab origine Caesar.

• Seu quis, Olympiacae miratus praemia palmae,
• Pascit equos, seu quis fortes ad aratra iuvencos,50
• Corpora praecipue matrum legat. Optima torvae
• Forma bovis, cui turpe caput, cui plurima cervix,
• Et crurum tenus a mento palearia pendent;
• Tum longo nullus lateri modus; omnia magna,
• Pes etiam; et camuris hirtae sub cornibus aures.55
• Nec mihi displiceat maculis insignis et albo,
• Aut iuga detractans interdumque aspera cornu,
• Et faciem tauro propior, quaeque ardua tota,
• Et gradiens ima verrit vestigia cauda.
• Aetas Lucinam iustosque pati hymenaeos60
• Desinit ante decem, post quattuor incipit annos:
• Cetera nec feturae habilis nec fortis aratris.
• Interea, superat gregibus dum laeta iuventas,
• Solve mares; mitte in Venerem pecuaria primus,
• Atque aliam ex alia generando suffice prolem.65
• Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi
• Prima fugit; subeunt morbi tristisque senectus
• Et labor, et durae rapit inclementia mortis.
• Semper erunt, quarum mutari corpora malis:
• Semper enim refice ac, ne post amissa requiras,70

• Anteveni, et subolem armento sortire quotannis.

• Nec non et pecori est idem delectus equino.
• Tu modo, quos in spem statues submittere gentis,
• Praecipuum iam inde a teneris impende laborem.
• Continuo pecoris generosi pullus in arvis75
• Altius ingreditur et mollia crura reponit;
• Primus et ire viam et fluvios temptare minantes
• Audet, et ignoto sese committere ponti,
• Nec vanos horret strepitus. Illi ardua cervix
• Argutumque caput, brevis alvus obesaque terga,80
• Luxuriatque toris animosum pectus. Honesti
• Spadices glaucique, color deterrimus albis
• Et gilvo. Tum, si qua sonum procul arma dedere,
• Stare loco nescit, micat auribus et tremit artus,
• Collectumque fremens volvit sub naribus ignem.85
• Densa iuba, et dextro iactata recumbit in armo;
• At duplex agitur per lumbos spina, cavatque
• Tellurem et solido graviter sonat ungula cornu.
• Talis Amyclaei domitus Pollucis habenis
• Cyllarus et, quorum Graii meminere poetae,90
• Martis equi biiuges et magni currus Achilli.
• Talis et ipse iubam cervice effudit equina
• Coniugis adventu pernix Saturnus, et altum
• Pelion hinnitu fugiens implevit acuto.

• Hunc quoque, ubi aut morbo gravis aut iam segnior annis95
• Deficit, abde domo, nec turpi ignosce senectae.
• Frigidus in Venerem senior, frustraque laborem
• Ingratum trahit, et, si quando ad proelia ventum est,
• Ut quondam in stipulis magnus sine viribus ignis,
• Incassum furit. Ergo animos aevumque notabis100
• Praecipue; hinc alias artes, prolemque parentum,
• Et quis cuique dolor victo, quae gloria palmae.
• Nonne vides, cum praecipiti certamine campum
• Corripuere, ruuntque effusi carcere currus,
• Cum spes arrectae iuvenum, exultantiaque haurit105
• Corda pavor pulsans? illi instant verbere torto
• Et proni dant lora, volat vi fervidus axis;
• Iamque humiles, iamque elati sublime videntur
• Aëra per vacuum ferri atque adsurgere in auras;
• Nec mora nec requies; at fulvae nimbus arenae110

• Tollitur, humescunt spumis flatuque sequentum:
• Tantus amor laudum, tantae est victoria curae.
• Primus Erichthonius currus et quattuor ausus
• Iungere equos, rapidusque rotis insistere victor.
• Frena Pelethronii Lapithae gyrosque dedere115
• Impositi dorso, atque equitem docuere sub armis
• Insultare solo et gressus glomerare superbos.
• Aequus uterque labor, aeque iuvenemque magistri
• Exquirunt calidumque animis et cursibus acrem,
• Quamvis saepe fuga versos ille egerit hostes,120
• Et patriam Epirum referat fortesque Mycenas,
• Neptunique ipsa deducat origine gentem.

• His animadversis instant sub tempus, et omnes
• Impendunt curas denso distendere pingui,
• Quem legere ducem et pecori dixere maritum;125
• Florentesque secant herbas fluviosque ministrant
• Farraque, ne blando nequeat superesse labori,
• Invalidique patrum referant ieiunia nati.
• Ipsa autem macie tenuant armenta volentes,
• Atque, ubi concubitus primos iam nota voluptas130
• Sollicitat, frondesque negant et fontibus arcent.
• Saepe etiam cursu quatiunt et sole fatigant,
• Cum graviter tunsis gemit area frugibus, et cum
• Surgentem ad Zephyrum paleae iactantur inanes.
• Hoc faciunt, nimio ne luxu obtunsior usus135
• Sit genitali arvo et sulcos oblimet inertes,
• Sed rapiat sitiens Venerem interiusque recondat.

• Rursus cura patrum cadere et succedere matrum
• Incipit. Exactis gravidae cum mensibus errant,
• Non illas gravibus quisquam iuga ducere plaustris,140
• Non saltu superare viam sit passus et acri
• Carpere prata fuga fluviosque innare rapaces.
• Saltibus in vacuis pascunt et plena secundum
• Flumina, muscus ubi et viridissima gramine ripa,
• Speluncaeque tegant et saxea procubet umbra.145
• Est lucos Silari circa ilicibusque virentem
• Plurimus Alburnum volitans, cui nomen asilo
• Romanum est, oestrum Graii vertere vocantes,
• Asper, acerba sonans, quo tota exterrita silvis
• Diffugiunt armenta; furit mugitibus aether150

• Concussus silvaeque et sicci ripa Tanagri.
• Hoc quondam monstro horribiles exercuit iras
• Inachiae Iuno pestem meditata iuvencae.
• Hunc quoque, nam mediis fervoribus acrior instat,
• Arcebis gravido pecori, armentaque pasces155
• Sole recens orto aut noctem ducentibus astris.

• Post partum cura in vitulos traducitur omnis;
• Continuoque notas et nomina gentis inurunt,
• Et quos aut pecori malint submittere habendo,
• Aut aris servare sacros, aut scindere terram160
• Et campum horrentem fractis invertere glaebis.
• Cetera pascuntur virides armenta per herbas.
• Tu quos ad studium atque usum formabis agrestem,
• Iam vitulos hortare, viamque insiste domandi,
• Dum faciles animi iuvenum, dum mobilis aetas.165
• Ac primum laxos tenui de vimine circlos
• Cervici subnecte; dehinc, ubi libera colla
• Servitio adsuerint, ipsis e torquibus aptos
• Iunge pares, et coge gradum conferre iuvencos;
• Atque illis iam saepe rotae ducantur inanes170
• Per terram, et summo vestigia pulvere signent;
• Post valido nitens sub pondere faginus axis
• Instrepat, et iunctos temo trahat aereus orbes.
• Interea pubi indomitae non gramina tantum
• Nec vescas salicum frondes ulvamque palustrem,175
• Sed frumenta manu carpes sata; nec tibi fetae
• More patrum nivea implebunt mulctraria vaccae,
• Sed tota in dulces consument ubera natos.

• Sin ad bella magis studium turmasque feroces,
• Aut Alphea rotis praelabi flumina Pisae,180
• Et Iovis in luco currus agitare volantes,
• Primus equi labor est, animos atque arma videre
• Bellantum, lituosque pati, tractuque gementem
• Ferre rotam, et stabulo frenos audire sonantes;
• Tum magis atque magis blandis gaudere magistri185
• Laudibus et plausae sonitum cervicis amare.
• Atque haec iam primo depulsus ab ubere matris
• Audeat, inque vicem det mollibus ora capistris
• Invalidus etiamque tremens, etiam inscius aevi.
• At tribus exactis ubi quarta accesserit aestas,190

• Carpere mox gyrum incipiat gradibusque sonare
• Compositis, sinuetque alterna volumina crurum,
• Sitque laboranti similis; tum cursibus auras,
• Tum vocet, ac per aperta volans ceu liber habenis
• Aequora vix summa vestigia ponat arena;195
• Qualis Hyperboreis Aquilo cum densus ab oris
• Incubuit, Scythiaeque hiemes atque arida differt
• Nubila: tum segetes altae campique natantes
• Lenibus horrescunt flabris, summaeque sonorem
• Dant silvae, longique urguent ad litora fluctus;200
• Ille volat simul arva fuga, simul aequora verrens.
• Hinc vel ad Elei metas et maxima campi
• Sudabit spatia, et spumas aget ore cruentas,
• Belgica vel molli melius feret esseda collo.
• Tum demum crassa magnum farragine corpus205
• Crescere iam domitis sinito: namque ante domandum
• Ingentes tollent animos, prensique negabunt
• Verbera lenta pati et duris parere lupatis.

• Sed non ulla magis vires industria firmat,
• Quam Venerem et caeci stimulos avertere amoris,210
• Sive boum sive est cui gratior usus equorum.
• Atque ideo tauros procul atque in sola relegant
• Pascua post montem oppositum et trans flumina lata,
• Aut intus clausos satura ad praesepia servant.
• Carpit enim vires paulatim uritque videndo215
• Femina, nec nemorum patitur meminisse nec herbae—
• Dulcibus illa quidem inlecebris,—et saepe superbos
• Cornibus inter se subigit decernere amantes.
• Pascitur in magna Sila formosa iuvenca:
• Illi alternantes multa vi proelia miscent220
• Volneribus crebris; lavit ater corpora sanguis,
• Versaque in obnixos urguentur cornua vasto
• Cum gemitu; reboant silvaeque et longus Olympus.
• Nec mos bellantes una stabulare, sed alter
• Victus abit, longeque ignotis exsulat oris,225
• Multa gemens ignominiam plagasque superbi
• Victoris, tum, quos amisit inultus, amores;
• Et stabula aspectans regnis excessit avitis.
• Ergo omni cura vires exercet, et inter
• Dura iacet pernox instrato saxa cubili,230

• Frondibus hirsutis et carice pastus acuta,
• Et temptat sese, atque irasci in cornua discit
• Arboris obnixus trunco, ventosque lacessit
• Ictibus, et sparsa ad pugnam proludit arena.
• Post, ubi collectum robur viresque refectae,235
• Signa movet, praecepsque oblitum fertur in hostem;
• Fluctus uti, medio coepit cum albescere ponto,
• Longius ex altoque sinum trahit, utque volutus
• Ad terras immane sonat per saxa, neque ipso
• Monte minor procumbit, at ima exaestuat unda240
• Vorticibus nigramque alte subiectat arenam.

• Omne adeo genus in terris hominumque ferarumque,
• Et genus aequoreum, pecudes pictaeque volucres,
• In furias ignemque ruunt: amor omnibus idem.
• Tempore non alio catulorum oblita leaena245
• Saevior erravit campis, nec funera volgo
• Tam multa informes ursi stragemque dedere
• Per silvas; tum saevus aper, tum pessima tigris;
• Heu male tum Libyae solis erratur in agris.
• Nonne vides, ut tota tremor, pertemptet equorum250
• Corpora, si tantum notas odor attulit auras?
• Ac neque eos iam frena virum, neque verbera saeva,
• Non scopuli rupesque cavae atque obiecta retardant
• Flumina correptosque unda torquentia montes.
• Ipse ruit dentesque Sabellicus exacuit sus,255
• Et pede prosubigit terram, fricat arbore costas,
• Atque hinc atque illinc humeros ad volnera durat.
• Quid iuvenis, magnum cui versat in ossibus ignem
• Durus amor? nempe abruptis turbata procellis
• Nocte natat caeca serus freta; quem super ingens260
• Porta tonat caeli, et scopulis inlisa reclamant
• Aequora; nec miseri possunt revocare parentes,
• Nec moritura super crudeli funere virgo.
• Quid lynces Bacchi variae et genus acre luporum
• Atque canum? quid, quae inbelles dant proelia cervi?265
• Scilicet ante omnes furor est insignis equarum;
• Et mentem Venus ipsa dedit, quo tempore Glauci
• Potniades malis membra absumpsere quadrigae.
• Illas ducit amor trans Gargara transque sonantem
• Ascanium; superant montes et flumina tranant.270

• Continuoque avidis ubi subdita flamma medullis,—
• Vere magis, quia vere calor redit ossibus—illae
• Ore omnes versae in Zephyrum stant rupibus altis,
• Exceptantque leves auras, et saepe sine ullis
• Coniugiis vento gravidae—mirabile dictu—275
• Saxa per et scopulos et depressas convalles
• Diffugiunt, non, Eure, tuos, neque solis ad ortus,
• In Borean Caurumque, aut unde nigerrimus Auster
• Nascitur et pluvio contristat frigore caelum.
• Hic demum, hippomanes vero quod nomine dicunt280
• Pastores, lentum destillat ab inguine virus,
• Hippomanes, quod saepe malae legere novercae,
• Miscueruntque herbas et non innoxia verba.

• Sed fugit interea, fugit inreparabile tempus,
• Singula dum capti circumvectamur amore.285
• Hoc satis armentis: superat pars altera curae,
• Lanigeros agitare greges hirtasque capellas.
• Hic labor, hinc laudem fortes sperate coloni.
• Nec sum animi dubius, verbis ea vincere magnum
• Quam sit, et anguistis hunc addere rebus honorem;290
• Sed me Parnasi deserta per ardua dulcis
• Raptat amor; iuvat ire iugis, qua nulla priorum
• Castaliam molli devertitur orbita clivo.
• Nunc, veneranda Pales, magno nunc ore sonandum.

• Incipiens stabulis edico in mollibus herbam295
• Carpere oves, dum mox frondosa reducitur aestas,
• Et multa duram stipula felicumque maniplis
• Sternere subter humum, glacies ne frigida laedat
• Molle pecus, scabiemque ferat turpesque podagras.
• Post hinc digressus iubeo frondentia capris300
• Arbuta sufficere et fluvios praebere recentes,
• Et stabula a ventis hiberno opponere soli
• Ad medium conversa diem, cum frigidus olim
• Iam cadit extremoque inrorat Aquarius anno.
• Hae quoque non cura nobis leviore tuendae,305
• Nec minor usus erit, quamvis Milesia magno
• Vellera mutentur Tyrios incocta rubores:
• Densior hinc suboles, hinc largi copia lactis;
• Quam magis exhausto spumaverit ubere mulctra,
• Laeta magis pressis manabunt flumina mammis.310

• Nec minus interea barbas incanaque menta
• Cinyphii tondent hirci saetasque comantes
• Usum in castrorum et miseris velamina nautis.
• Pascuntur vero silvas et summa Lycaei
• Horrentesque rubos et amantes ardua dumos:315
• Atque ipsae memores redeunt in tecta, suosque
• Ducunt, et gravido superant vix ubere limen.
• Ergo omni studio glaciem ventosque nivales,
• Quo minor est illis curae mortalis egestas,
• Avertes, victumque feres et virgea laetus320
• Pabula, nec tota claudes faenilia bruma.
• At vero Zephyris cum laeta vocantibus aestas
• In saltus utrumque gregem atque in pascua mittet,
• Luciferi primo cum sidere frigida rura
• Carpamus, dum mane novum, dum gramina canent,325
• Et ros in tenera pecori gratissimus herba.
• Inde ubi quarta sitim caeli collegerit hora
• Et cantu querulae rumpent arbusta cicadae,
• Ad puteos aut alta greges ad stagna iubebo
• Currentem ilignis potare canalibus undam;330
• Aestibus at mediis umbrosam exquirere vallem,
• Sicubi magna Iovis antiquo robore quercus
• Ingentes tendat ramos, aut sicubi nigrum
• Ilicibus crebris sacra nemus accubet umbra;
• Tum tenues dare rursus aquas et pascere rursus335
• Solis ad occasum, cum frigidus aëra vesper
• Temperat, et saltus reficit iam roscida luna,
• Litoraque alcyonem resonant, acalanthida dumi.

• Quid tibi pastores Libyae, quid pascua versu
• Prosequar et raris habitata mapalia tectis?340
• Saepe diem noctemque et totum ex ordine mensem
• Pascitur itque pecus longa in deserta sine ullis
• Hospitiis: tantum campi iacet. omnia secum
• Armentarius Afer agit, tectumque laremque
• Armaque Amyclaeumque canem Cressamque pharetram;345
• Non secus ac patriis acer Romanus in armis
• Iniusto sub fasce viam cum carpit, et hosti
• Ante expectatum positis stat in agmine castris.
• At non, qua Scythiae gentes Maeotiaque unda,
• Turbidus et torquens flaventes Hister arenas,350

• Quaque redit medium Rhodope porrecta sub axem.
• Illic clausa tenent stabulis armenta, neque ullae
• Aut herbae campo apparent aut arbore frondes;
• Sed iacet aggeribus niveis informis et alto
• Terra gelu late, septemque adsurgit in ulnas.355
• Semper hiemps, semper spirantes frigora Cauri.
• Tum Sol pallentes haud umquam discutit umbras,
• Nec cum invectus equis altum petit aethera, nec cum
• Praecipitem Oceani rubro lavit aequore currum.
• Concrescunt subitae currenti in flumine crustae360
• Undaque iam tergo ferratos sustinet orbes,
• Puppibus illa prius, patulis nunc hospita plaustris;
• Aeraque dissiliunt ultro, vestesque rigescunt
• Indutae, caeduntque securibus humida vina,
• Et totae solidam in glaciem vertere lacunae,365
• Stiriaque inpexis induruit horrida barbis.
• Interea toto non setius aëre ninguit:
• Intereunt pecudes, stant circumfusa pruinis
• Corpora magna boum, confertoque agmine cervi
• Torpent mole nova et summis vix cornibus extant.370
• Hos non immissis canibus, non cassibus ullis
• Puniceaeve agitant pavidos formidine pennae,
• Sed frustra oppositum trudentes pectore montem
• Comminus obtruncant ferro, graviterque rudentes
• Caedunt, et magno laeti clamore reportant.375
• Ipsi in defossis specubus secura sub alta
• Otia agunt terra, congestaque robora totasque
• Advolvere focis ulmos ignique dedere.
• Hic noctem ludo ducunt, et pocula laeti
• Fermento atque acidis imitantur vitea sorbis.380
• Talis Hyperboreo septem subiecta trioni
• Gens effrena virum Rhipaeo tunditur Euro,
• Et pecudum fulvis velatur corpora saetis.

• Si tibi lanitium curae, primum aspera silva
• Lappaeque tribolique absint; fuge pabula laeta;385
• Continuoque greges villis lege mollibus albos.
• Illum autem, quamvis aries sit candidus ipse,
• Nigra subest udo tantum cui lingua palato,
• Reiice, ne maculis infuscet vellera pullis
• Nascentum, plenoque alium circumspice campo.390

• Munere sic niveo lanae, si credere dignum est,
• Pan deus Arcadiae captam te, Luna, fefellit
• In nemora alta vocans; nec tu aspernata vocantem.

• At cui lactis amor, cytisum lotosque frequentes
• Ipse manu salsasque ferat praesepibus herbas.395
• Hinc et amant fluvios magis, et magis ubera tendunt,
• Et salis occultum referunt in lacte saporem.
• Multi iam excretos prohibent a matribus haedos,
• Primaque ferratis praefigunt ora capistris.
• Quod surgente die mulsere horisque diurnis,400
• Nocte premunt; quod iam tenebris et sole cadente,
• Sub lucem; exportans calathis adit oppida pastor,
• Aut parco sale contingunt hiemique reponunt.

• Nec tibi cura canum fuerit postrema, sed una
• Velocis Spartae catulos acremque Molossum405
• Pasce sero pingui. Numquam custodibus illis
• Nocturnum stabulis furem incursusque luporum
• Aut inpacatos a tergo horrebis Hiberos.
• Saepe etiam cursu timidos agitabis onagros,
• Et canibus leporem, canibus venabere dammas;410
• Saepe volutabris pulsos silvestribus apros
• Latratu turbabis agens, montesque per altos
• Ingentem clamore premes ad retia cervum.

• Disce et odoratam stabulis accendere cedrum,
• Galbaneoque agitare graves nidore chelydros.415
• Saepe sub immotis praesepibus aut mala tactu
• Vipera delituit caelumque exterrita fugit,
• Aut tecto adsuetus coluber succedere et umbrae,
• Pestis acerba boum, pecorique aspergere virus,
• Fovit humum. Cape saxa manu, cape robora, pastor,420
• Tollentemque minas et sibila colla tumentem
• Deiice. Iamque fuga timidum caput abdidit alte,
• Cum medii nexus extremaeque agmina caudae
• Solvuntur, tardosque trahit sinus ultimus orbes.
• Est etiam ille malus Calabris in saltibus anguis,425
• Squamea convolvens sublato pectore terga
• Atque notis longam maculosus grandibus alvum,
• Qui, dum amnes ulli rumpuntur fontibus et dum
• Vere madent udo terrae ac pluvialibus austris,
• Stagna colit, ripisque habitans hic piscibus atram430

• Improbus ingluviem ranisque loquacibus explet;
• Postquam exusta palus, terraeque ardore dehiscunt,
• Exsilit in siccum, et flammantia lumina torquens
• Saevit agris, asperque siti atque exterritus aestu.
• Ne mihi tum molles sub divo carpere somnos435
• Neu dorso nemoris libeat iacuisse per herbas,
• Cum positis novus exuviis nitidusque iuventa
• Volvitur, aut catulos tectis aut ova relinquens
• Arduus ad solem, et linguis micat ore trisulcis.

• Morborum quoque te causas et signa docebo.440
• Turpis oves temptat scabies, ubi frigidus imber
• Altius ad vivum persedit et horrida cano
• Bruma gelu, vel cum tonsis inlotus adhaesit
• Sudor, et hirsuti secuerunt corpora vepres.
• Dulcibus idcirco fluviis pecus omne magistri445
• Perfundunt, udisque aries in gurgite villis
• Mersatur, missusque secundo defluit amni;
• Aut tonsum tristi contingunt corpus amurca,
• Et spumas miscent argenti vivaque sulfura
• Idaeasque pices et pingues unguine ceras450
• Scillamque elleborosque graves nigrumque bitumen.
• Non tamen ulla magis praesens fortuna laborum est,
• Quam si quis ferro potuit rescindere summum
• Ulceris os: alitur vitium vivitque tegendo,
• Dum medicas adhibere manus ad volnera pastor455
• Abnegat, et meliora deos sedet omina poscens.
• Quin etiam, ima dolor balantum lapsus ad ossa
• Cum furit atque artus depascitur arida febris,
• Profuit incensos aestus avertere et inter
• Ima ferire pedis salientem sanguine venam,460
• Bisaltae quo more solent acerque Gelonus;
• Cum fugit in Rhodopen atque in deserta Getarum
• Et lac concretum cum sanguine potat equino.
• Quam procul aut molli succedere saepius umbrae
• Videris, aut summas carpentem ignavius herbas,465
• Extremamque sequi, aut medio procumbere campo
• Pascentem, et serae solam decedere nocti;
• Continuo culpam ferro compesce, priusquam
• Dira per incautum serpant contagia volgus.
• Non tam creber agens hiemem ruit aequore turbo,470

• Quam multae pecudum pestes. Nec singula morbi
• Corpora corripiunt, sed tota aestiva repente,
• Spemque gregemque simul cunctamque ab origine gentem.
• Tum sciat, aërias Alpes et Norica si quis
• Castella in tumulis et Iapydis arva Timavi475
• Nunc quoque post tanto videat desertaque regna
• Pastorum et longe saltus lateque vacantes.

• Hic quondam morbo caeli miseranda coorta est
• Tempestas, totoque autumni incanduit aestu,
• Et genus omne neci pecudum dedit, omne ferarum,480
• Corrupitque lacus, infecit pabula tabo.
• Nec via mortis erat simplex, sed ubi ignea venis
• Omnibus acta sitis miseros adduxerat artus,
• Rursus abundabat fluidus liquor omniaque in se
• Ossa minutatim morbo conlapsa trahebat.485
• Saepe in honore deum medio stans hostia ad aram,
• Lanea dum nivea circumdatur infula vitta,
• Inter cunctantes cecidit moribunda ministros.
• Aut si quam ferro mactaverat ante sacerdos,
• Inde neque impositis ardent altaria fibris490
• Nec responsa potest consultus reddere vates,
• Ac vix suppositi tinguntur sanguine cultri
• Summaque ieiuna sanie infuscatur arena.
• Hinc laetis vituli volgo moriuntur in herbis,
• Et dulces animas plena ad praesepia reddunt;495
• Hinc canibus blandis rabies venit, et quatit aegros
• Tussis anhela sues ac faucibus angit obesis.
• Labitur infelix studiorum atque immemor herbae
• Victor equus fontesque avertitur et pede terram
• Crebra ferit; demissae aures, incertus ibidem500
• Sudor et ille quidem morituris frigidus, aret
• Pellis et ad tactum tractanti dura resistit.
• Haec ante exitium primis dant signa diebus;
• Sin in processu coepit crudescere morbus,
• Tum vero ardentes oculi atque attractus ab alto505
• Spiritus, interdum gemitu gravis, imaque longo
• Ilia singultu tendunt, it naribus ater
• Sanguis et obsessas fauces premit aspera lingua.
• Profuit inserto latices infundere cornu
• Lenaeos; ea visa salus morientibus una;510

• Mox erat hoc ipsum exitio, furiisque refecti
• Ardebant, ipsique suos iam morte sub aegra—
• Di meliora piis erroremque hostibus illum!—
• Discissos nudis laniabant dentibus artus.
• Ecce autem duro fumans sub vomere taurus515
• Concidit et mixtum spumis vomit ore cruorem
• Extremosque ciet gemitus. It tristis arator
• Maerentem abiungens fraterna morte iuvencum,
• Atque opere in medio defixa relinquit aratra.
• Non umbrae altorum nemorum, non mollia possunt520
• Prata movere animum, non qui per saxa volutus
• Purior electro campum petit amnis; at ima
• Solvuntur latera, atque oculos stupor urguet inertes,
• Ad terramque fluit devexo pondere cervix.
• Quid labor aut benefacta iuvant? quid vomere terras525
• Invertisse graves? atqui non Massica Bacchi
• Munera, non illis epulae nocuere repostae:
• Frondibus et victu pascuntur simplicis herbae,
• Pocula sunt fontes liquidi atque exercita cursu
• Flumina, nec somnos abrumpit cura salubres.530
• Tempore non alio dicunt regionibus illis
• Quaesitas ad sacra boves Iunonis, et uris
• Imparibus ductos alta ad donaria currus.
• Ergo aegre rastris terram rimantur, et ipsis
• Unguibus infodiunt fruges, montesque per altos535
• Contenta cervice trahunt stridentia plaustra.
• Non lupus insidias explorat ovilia circum,
• Nec gregibus nocturnus obambulat; acrior illum
• Cura domat; timidi dammae cervique fugaces
• Nunc interque canes et circum tecta vagantur.540
• Iam maris immensi prolem et genus omne natantum
• Litore in extremo, ceu naufraga corpora, fluctus
• Proluit; insolitae fugiunt in flumina phocae.
• Interit et curvis frustra defensa latebris
• Vipera, et attoniti squamis adstantibus hydri.545
• Ipsis est aër avibus non aequus, et illae
• Praecipites alta vitam sub nube relinquunt.
• Praeterea iam nec mutari pabula refert,
• Quaesitaeque nocent artes; cessere magistri,
• Phillyrides Chiron Amythaoniusque Melampus.550

• Saevit et in lucem Stygiis emissa tenebris
• Pallida Tisiphone Morbos agit ante Metumque,
• Inque dies avidum surgens caput altius effert.
• Balatu pecorum et crebris mugitibus amnes
• Arentesque sonant ripae collesque supini.555
• Iamque catervatim dat stragem atque aggerat ipsis
• In stabulis turpi dilapsa cadavera tabo,
• Donec humo tegere ac foveis abscondere discunt.
• Nam neque erat coriis usus nec viscera quisquam
• Aut undis abolere potest aut vincere flamma;560
• Ne tondere quidem morbo inluvieque peresa
• Vellera nec telas possunt attingere putres;
• Verum etiam invisos si quis temptarat amictus,
• Ardentes papulae atque immundus olentia sudor
• Membra sequebatur, nec longo deinde moranti565
• Tempore contactos artus sacer ignis edebat.

THE GEORGICS OF VIRGIL.

BOOK III.

• Thee too, great Pales, and Shepherd Amphrysian, worthy our praise,
• You, forests and rivers Lycaean, of you our song will we raise.
• Other themes that had held mere vacant minds with the spell of the bard
• Are by this outworn. Who knows not Eurystheus the taskmaster hard?
• Who knows not Busiris’ altars damned to eternal shame?5
• Who hath heard not of Hylas the Boy?—of Latonian Delos’ fame?—
• Of Hippodame?—Pelops in splendour of ivory shoulder who drove
• Furiously? A path will I try that shall lift me above
• This earth, and from lip to lip of men my triumphant flight
• Will I wing. I first to my fatherland—if I behold life’s light10
• So long—from the Mount Aonian returning, the Muses with me
• Will I lead; I will bring to thee, Mantua, palms of Araby;
• And a temple of solid marble on that green plain will I raise
• By the water, where Mincius broad with lazy winding strays,
• And hath fringed with the softly-bending reed his rippling lane.15
• In the midst thereof shall be Caesar; his presence shall fill thy fane.
• In his honour arrayed in the conqueror’s Tyrian purple-gleam
• Will I lead a procession of five-score four-horsed cars to thy stream.
• All Greece shall forsake Alpheius’ lists and Molorchus’ grove
• At my summons, shall strive in the race, and with raw-hide fighting-glove.20
• Even I, my brows enwreathed with the olive, the conqueror’s meed,
• Will bring him my gifts. Even now with exultation I lead
• To his shrine the solemn procession, at altars will see steers bleed,
• See the stage dispart as the scenes swing round, and inwoven there
• See painted Britons the purple tapestry-folds upbear.25
• At the portals in gold and in solid ivory carved shall be found
• The fight with the sons of the Ganges, and Rome’s arms victory-crowned.
• And here, upsurging to war, and with vast flood battleward roaring,
• Nile, and the columns of triumph with prows of bronze upsoaring,
• And cities of Asia subdued, and Niphates, from fight as he fled,30

• And the Parthian who trusteth in flight and the arrows backward sped;
• And, wrested from diverse enemies, victory-trophies twain,
• And foes twice led in triumph from either side of the main.
• There Parian marbles, statues that verily breathe, shall shine;
• The sons of Assaracus, names of a Jove-descended line,35
• And our forefather Tros, and the Founder of Troy, the Cynthian King,
• And accursèd Disloyalty’s form at the Furies shuddering,
• At relentless Cocytus, Ixion’s wild wheel horribly twined
• With serpents, and Sisyphus’ stone that never the summit shall find.
• Till that day comes, will we track the Dryad-haunted glade40
• And wood, hard task upon me by thee, Maecenas, laid.
• Without thee no high emprise my spirit essays:—fling aside
• All dull delay! With challenging shouts hath Cithaeron cried,
• Taygetus’ hounds, Epidaurus who quelleth steeds with the rein,
• And echo-redoubled the forest’s acclaiming rings again.45
• Yet soon will I gird me of Caesar’s fiery fights to sing,
• And through years no fewer to bear his renown upon fame’s strong wing
• Than divide from Tithonus Caesar, the winter of earth from her spring.

• Whether, ambitious of palms of Olympia, ye fain would rear
• Horses, or oxen strong through tilthland-furrows to shear,50
• The dams with good heed to their points must ye choose. The best brood-cow
• Hath a lowering look, coarse head, and a neck that is massive enow,
• And down below her knees from her throat doth the dewlap fall.
• No limit there is to the length of her side, she is huge-framed all,
• Even her feet. She hath horns incurved, ears shaggy with hair.55
• For her colour—though she be dappled with white flecks—nothing I care,
• Nor care though she spurn the yoke, with her horns push viciously,
• Have a head more like to a bull, and a frame throughout built high,
• While her tail as she paces is sweeping the dust behind her feet.
• The season for service to wedlock, the age for the Travail-queen meet,60
• Before the tenth year endeth, and entereth in at the fourth.
• Younger or older for calving or ploughing be nothing-worth.
• In the mid-space, while unspent is the lusty youth of the herd,
• Restrain not the males, nay, to Venus’s sport be thy cattle upstirred.
• So by breeding replace thou ever the first by a second and third.65
• Ah me, life’s fairest days be ever the first to fly
• From hapless mortals! Diseases and dreary eld draw nigh;
• Toil wastes them, and stern death’s ruthlessness hurries them hence in a day!
• There will ever be some in thine herd with whose form thou canst not away:
• Then still be recruiting thy stock, lest losses too late thou rue:70

• Prevent all such; young lives for thine herd choose yearly anew.

• For thine horse-stud too must thy choice be made with no less heed.
• Yea, such as thou shalt determine to rear as the hope of the breed,
• Upon these from their tenderest youth shalt thou lavish especial pains.
• From the first doth the foal of a high-bred stock, as he paceth the plains,75
• Lift high his feet, and he planteth on earth a springy limb.
• Ever he leadeth the way for the rest: no terrors for him
• Hath the threatening torrent; he trusteth himself to the untried bridge:
• He is scared not at meaningless noises. His neck is a high-arched ridge:
• Clean-cut is his head, full-fleshed is his back, and his barrel short;80
• His high-mettled chest is billowy with muscle. The comelier sort
• Be the bay and the grey: of all coats worst be the dun and the white.
• Once more, if from far away arms clash as in grapple of fight,
• He cannot be still, pricks ears, his limbs are quivering,
• From his nostrils the volumed breath like smoke from a fire doth he fling.85
• He tosseth a dense mane back o’er his rightward shoulder to sweep.
• His spine is a valley between two ridges: his hoofs dint deep
• The earth, and the solid horn wakes thunder at every leap.
• Such Cyllarus was, who was tamed by the curb of Amyclae’s king
• Pollux, and they of whom the Grecian poets sing,90
• The chariot-pair of Mars, and mighty Achilles’ team.
• So likewise seemed fleet Saturn, when over his neck to stream
• He tossed his mane as his queen drew near, and, fleeing away,
• Filled sky-encountering Pelion’s glens with his clarion neigh.

• Him also, when bowed by disease, or by years made sluggish now,95
• He fails, pen up; his inglorious eld indulge not thou.
• Age chills him for Venus’s service; o’er labour vainly wrought
• And thankless, he lingers: if e’er he essay the encounter, for naught
• He rages, as sometimes rushes through stubble a wide-spread fire
• That is strengthless. Note thou therefore the spirit and age of a sire100
• First, other qualities then, and the strain of his sires, the shame
• Each showed in the hour of defeat, the pride in victory’s fame.
• Hast marked not, in headlong-reckless contention tearing o’er
• The plain, the torrent of chariots that forth of the barriers pour,
• With the hopes of their drivers at highest, with throbbing eagerness draining105
• The hearts exultant? Onward with circling lash are they straining:
• Forward they lean loose-reined: hot axles stormily fly,
• And now low-skimming they glide, now seem they, bounding high,
• To shoot through the empty air, to soar mid the winds on-rolled.
• No stint, no stay!—uptossed is a cloud as of dust of gold.110

• They are wet with the foam and the breath of pursuers following near;
• So hot is the passion for victory, fame to their hearts so dear.

• Erichthonius first o’er a fourfold team dared cast the band
• Of the yoke, and in speed triumphant above the wheels to stand.
• The Lapiths of Pelethron mounted the back of the charger, and swayed115
• His course to and fro with the reins, taught riders armour-arrayed
• To bound o’er the earth, curvetting with proudly arching knees.
• Over car-steed and saddle-horse pains alike must be taken; for these
• The trainers alike seek youth, high mettle, and speed in the race,
• Though the veteran oft may have held a flying foe in chase,120
• For his birth-land Epirus may boast, or Mycenae strong under shield,
• Though his lineage he trace to the charger that Neptune’s trident revealed.

• These things men note, and when near is the time, they bestir them: the steed
• With their utmost endeavour they seek into firm-fleshed fatness to feed,
• The stallion chosen for chieftain, and named for the mate of the stud.125
• They mow for him flowering grass, give him drink from the fresh-flowing flood,
• And corn, that he fail not of aught that his labour of love requires,
• And that weakling sons prove not starved copies of starveling sires.
• But the brood-mares of purpose by stinting their food unto leanness they bring,
• And so soon as of union’s delightsome instinct they feel the sting,130
• They deny to them foliage fresh, they drive them back from the spring,
• Oft shake their frames in the gallop, and tire them in midnoon heat
• When the threshing-floor groans as the flails are heavily lashing the wheat,
• And the chaff is tossed to the west-wind’s freshening blast therethrough.
• This do they for fear high living should dull the service due135
• Of the field of generation, should smother its furrows asleep
• Which should thirstily swallow the procreant rain, and should hide it deep.

• Now waneth our care for the sires, our care for the dams hath begun.
• When at last they wander in foal, when the tale of the months hath run,
• These let none suffer to pull at the yoke of the ponderous wain,140
• Nor to clear at a bound the highway, in fiery race to strain
• Far over the meadow-land, nor in rushing floods to be swimming.
• Upon treeless lawns let them graze, and beside slow brooks full-brimming,
• Where the moss billows softly, the bank is in deepest greenness arrayed.
• By caves be they sheltered, and overscreened by the rocks’ cool shade.145

• By Silarus’ groves and Alburnus green with his holm-oaks tall
• A winged thing swarms, which the sons of Rome the “asilus” call,
• But the Greeks to the selfsame pest a new name, “oestrus,” have given,
• It is fierce, harsh-buzzing; before it whole herds panic-driven
• Flee wide through the forests; with bellowings maddened and stunned is the air,150

• And the woods, and the banks of waterless Tanager everywhere.
• With this horror did Juno wreak her hideous vengeance of yore,
• When for Inachus’ daughter, the Heifer-maid, she had ruin in store.
• From this, which attacks most fiercely when noonday heat is at height,
• Thou wilt shield the teeming herd, wilt let them graze when the light
• Of the sun is but newly risen, or stars usher in the night.

• When the calves have come to the birth, all care is to them transferred.
• Men brand them with ownership’s mark, with the name of their strain, from the herd
• Choose which they will rear for breeding the hope of a coming day,
• Or for sacrifice consecrate, or set to cleave the clay160
• Till the furrowed field shows like to a roughly ridging sea:
• The rest in great herds pasture along the grassy lea.
• Such as for work thou wilt fashion, to bring forth labour’s fruit,
• While yet they are calves, do thou school, and on discipline’s path set foot,
• While docile their young minds are in the first year’s pliant days.165
• At the first with loose light rings of the osier’s slender sprays
• Do thou loop their necks; thereafter, when shoulders aforetime free
• Are to thraldom used, let well-matched couples be yoked of thee
• With those same collars, and trained to step on side by side.
• In drawing of wains unladen now let them oft be tried,170
• When but lightly marked is the track o’er the surface-dust of the plain.
• Ere long ’neath a mighty load may the beechen axle strain
• And shriek, and the brass-bound shaft shall drag the twinned wheels on.
• Ere then, for their untamed youth thou shalt mow not grass alone,
• Nor starveling sprays of willow, nor bladed sedge of the fen,175
• But green corn plucked with thine hand. Nor the mothers shalt thou cause then
• In olden fashion to brim the milk-pails white as snow:
• But all their udders’ wealth on their dear babes let them bestow.

• But if thy desire be to fiery squadrons and grapple of war,
• Or to glide by Alpheius’ Pisan streams on the wheels of the car,180
• And the flying chariot in Jupiter’s hallowed grove to speed,
• In beholding the fury of fight the training begins of the steed,
• In enduring the clarion’s peal, and in bearing the rushing din
• Of wheels, and in hearing the jingling of harness his stall within;
• Then, more and more to delight in kindly tones and praise185
• Of his lord, and to love the caressing hand on his neck that plays.
• Thus far let him venture when first he is weaned from the mother’s teat:
• In due course then with his mouth the halter soft shall he meet,
• While short of his full strength, starting with all youth’s ignorant fear.
• But when summers three shall be past, when now the fourth is here,190

• In the ring let him learn to curvet, beat time with measured pace,
• And one after other to curve his limbs in arches of grace,
• And to show like a worker indeed. Then, then let him challenge the blast
• Of the wind to the race; as uncurbed by the rein, o’er the plain flying fast,
• Scarce let him print with his footfalls the face of the level sand;195
• As when Aquilo dark with the cloud-pack comes from the far north-land
• Down-swooping, and Scythia’s storms and rainless clouds are hurled
• Before him; the tall corn-crops, the billowy water-world
• Are with light gusts rippled and ruffled, the crests of the forest sigh,
• And shoreward the long sea-rollers are crowding tumultuously;200
• Over field, over flood wide-sweeping his pinions onward strain.
• Hereafter to goals of Olympia, o’er limitless reaches of plain,
• Sweat-bathed shall the steed race, fling from his mouth the foam blood-flecked,
• Or the Belgian chariot the better shall speed on docile-necked.
• Then at the last with fattening mash do thou suffer his frame205
• To wax great, now he is broken in; for, ere one tame
• Their spirit, their mettle is high, they will scorn, when the task ye essay,
• To submit to the pliant lash, and the merciless curb to obey.

• Howbeit no tendance will stablish more surely his strength and his fire
• Than to shield him from Venus’s frenzy, from stings of blind desire,210
• Whether one’s heart be set on the training of cattle or steeds.
• Therefore men banish the bull unto far lone pasture-meads,
• Beyond some mountain-barrier, some broad-flowing river’s sweep,
• Or they pen him within four walls, and his manger abundantly heap.
• By the sight of the female slowly his strength is consumed and decayed,215
• And he cannot endure to think of the grass nor the woodland glade—
• So winsome is her allurement—and oft will jealousy drive
• Those haughty lovers with clashing horns in contention to strive.
• The beauteous heifer is grazing on Sila’s mountain-height;
• But the bulls in alternate onset crash with giant might,220
• And with wound upon wound: their frames are bathed in the dark blood’s flow:
• With levelled horns each thrusteth against his struggling foe
• With thunderous bellowing; echo the woods and the broad-arched sky.
• Nor together the rivals are wont to stall them: the vanquished will fly
• From the field, and will pass into exile afar amid scenes unknown,225
• And for shame and the blows of the haughty victor shall oft-times groan,
• Yea, more for his loss unavenged, and for anguish of thwarted desire.
• Old realms hath he left, oft backward gazing at stall and byre.
• Therefore with ceaseless training he disciplines his powers:
• On a hard rock-couch uncushioned he lies through the long night-hours:230

• Upon prickly leaves he feedeth, he croppeth the sword-like sedge:
• He testeth his strength, he learneth to set his fury’s edge
• On his horns, as he thrusts at a tree, and assails the air with blows,
• And the sand, as in prelude to battle, his spurning hoof up-throws.
• At last, when his powers are upgathered, at last, when his strength is reborn
• He breaks camp; headlong he swoops on the foe that forgat him in scorn.
• Like a billow he comes, that upheaves in the outsea a crest white-flashing,
• Drags broader-swelling a curve from the deep, and on-rolling and crashing
• Shoreward, through reefs it roars terrific, and down on the land
• Topples huge as a mountain, while whirlpool-abysses boil over the strand240
• Up-belching out of the depths of darkness the swart sea-sand.

• Yea, all—all tribes of earth, all men, all cattle-herds,
• Wild beasts of the forest, the brood of the sea, plume-painted birds,
• Into flames of passion rush; all hearts are in one net taken.
• At none other time doth the lioness, even her whelps forsaken,245
• More savagely prowl o’er the plains, nor shag-haired formless bears
• Spread death and destruction more widely around their forest-lairs.
• Most fierce is the boar, most fell is the tigress in those mad days.
• Ah, it is ill for him then who in Libya’s solitudes strays!
• Hast marked not with what wild thrill the steed’s whole frame will shake,250
• At the first gust wafted to him of the odour he cannot mistake?
• Then him no curbs of men nor merciless whips may delay,
• Neither rocks nor cliffs overarching, nor rivers that bar his way
• Though they tear up mountains and whirl them adown in their waves’ wild play.
• On charges the Sabine boar, and he whets his tusks for the fray,255
• Ploughs up with his feet the ground, and chafes against a tree
• His sides, and either shoulder against wounds hardeneth he.
• What of the youth, when Love the relentless fans in his breast
• A great flame? He, though the tempest burst, though in wild unrest
• Waves toss, through the starless night belated he swims, while crash260
• Thunders from heaven’s huge gate: great seas, on the rocks as they dash,
• Shout, warning him thence: yea, his wretched parents in vain to him cry
• “Return!” and the maiden doomed on his woeful pyre to die.
• What of the Wine-god’s dappled lynx?—of the scourge of the wold,
• The wolf?—of the hound?—of the battles of stags unwarlike-souled?265
• But pre-eminent surely beyond the rest is the rage of the mare.
• ’Twas the frenzy inspired by a Goddess, when Potniae’s car-team tare
• And devoured the limbs of Glaucus in Venus’s vengeance-day.
• Over Gargara’s steep, over roaring Ascanius hurried are they
• By passion; they scale the mountain, they swim the rushing river.270

• Soon as their eager fibres with thrills of its wildfire quiver,—
• Chiefly in spring, when their inward flame is to new life fanned,—
• On the brow of a towering cliff all westward-facing stand,
• And they snuff the unsubstantial breeze, and it oft doth betide
• That unmated—a marvel to tell!—by the wind are they fructified.275
• Then over crag, over scaur, over deep-dipping valleys they fly
• Scattering, not to the east-wind’s birth, nor the dayspring-sky,
• But to north or to north-west bound, or thither where utter-black
• Uprises the south overglooming the sky with his chill cloud-rack.
• Then, then that viscid slime trickles down from the groins of these280
• Which only is rightly named of the shepherds hippomanes—
• Hippomanes, gathered oft by stepdames on mischief bent,
• And with baleful herbs and with muttered spells most deadly blent.

• But the time meanwhile is fleeting, is fleeting past recall,
• While we hover around each flower of the field that holds us in thrall.285
• For the herds let this suffice; remaineth my second care
• To deal with the fleece-laden sheep, with the goats of shaggy hair.
• Here truly is toil; yet hence, stout yeomen, look for renown.
• I mistake not how hard is the task to set triumphantly down
• My precepts in verse, and so lowly a theme with honour to crown.290
• But o’er steeps of Parnassus untrod in a rapture I speed afar:
• It is joy to traverse the heights where no forerunner’s car
• Hath followed the track down the smooth-falling slope unto Castaly’s spring.
• Now, Pales worship-worthy, in stately strain must I sing.

• I ordain at the outset that sheep in sheltered pens should feed295
• Till leafy summer—’twill not be long—come back to the mead.
• With abundance of straw and with handfuls of fern be the hard ground spread
• Beneath, that the icy cold may strike not up through their bed
• To the tender flock, bringing scab and the foot-rot foul to see.
• Now pass I on, and I bid thee cast from the arbute-tree300
• Leaves to thy goats in plenty, and water fresh from the brook.
• Turn from the wind their pens, to the winter sun let them look
• Facing the midnoon sky, when Aquarius cold and drear
• At last is setting, and sprinkles the skirts of the flying year.
• With no less care must we shield these too in the stormy tide;305
• Nor our profit of these shall be less—yea, fleeces Milesian dyed
• In purple of Tyre be exchanged for a princely price, I know;
• Yet from goats more abundant increase, of milk a stintless flow
• Is won; and the fuller the milk-pails foam, when their udders ye drain,
• The richer the flood shall stream when ye press the teats again.310

• Moreover, the shepherds shear the beard and the reverend chin
• Of the goat of Cinyphian breed; of his long coarse hair they spin
• Tents for the camp, and storm-scourged mariners cloak them therein.
• Through forests, o’er heights Arcadian they pasture, and not as the sheep,
• But the thorny bramble they crop, and the thickets that love the steep,315
• And undriven forget not home to return, and their kids they bring,
• And their burdened udders over the threshold scarce can they swing.
• Little of man’s care need they, but this let them fail not to find:
• Thou with all diligence screen them from frost and the snow-laden wind.
• Be bounteous in bringing them fodder, be leaf-laden branches supplied,320
• And bar not against them thy hayloft through all the winter-tide.
• But when at the call of the west-wind jubilant summer shall speed
• Forth to the woodland-glade the goats, the sheep to the mead,
• With the morning-star’s first gleam to the pastures cool let us pass,
• Let us range them, while young is the morning, while overpearled is the grass,325
• When the dew on the tender herb is unto the flock most sweet.
• Thereafter, when heaven’s fourth hour hath gathered thirst from the heat,
• And cicadas are rending the copse as their song’s wild wail they repeat,
• Then will I bid that thy flock by the well or the deep clear pool
• Drink from the hollowed ilex the running water cool.330
• But in midnoon heat seek out some leaf-shadowed dell for them,
• Where Jove’s huge oak from the immemorial strength of his stem
• Outstretcheth giant arms, or where, with the thronging holm
• Darkened, the grove like a sleeper lieth in hallowed gloom.
• Then give them again of the thin-threaded stream, and again let them graze335
• Till set of the sun, when the gloaming-tide’s cool breath allays
• The feverous air, when the dew-dripping moon requickens the glade,
• When the shores with the halcyon ring, with the warbler the copse’s shade.

• What need of the shepherds of Libya, what need of their pastures to tell
• In song?—of the widely-scattered hamlets wherein they dwell?340
• Oft nightlong, daylong, yea, through a whole month, day after day
• Pasture their flocks, far-roaming the waste land’s trackless way
• Never folded; before them lie such limitless plains. His all
• That Afric herdman carries with him—the sheltering wall
• Of his home, his wolf-hound warder of sheep, his quiver and bow.345
• The valiant Roman, arrayed in ancestral arms, even so
• Plods on and on ’neath his tyrannous knapsack-burden; and lo,
• Ere they look for him, pitched is his camp, and his columns face the foe.
• Far other it is, where Scythian hordes by Maeotis shiver,
• Where whirled are the tawny sands down Danube the turbid river,350

• Where right beneath the pole far-stretched bends Rhodope round.
• There pent in the stalls men keep their herds; for nowhere is found
• Any grass in the fields, and nowhere a leaf do the tree-boughs show,
• But far and wide is the landscape blurred with the mounded snow
• And with thick-ribbed ice, a crust whose depth is in seven ells told.355
• ’Tis eternal winter; the blasts evermore blow icy-cold.
• Never the grey cloud-pall by a shaft of the sun is riven,
• Neither when borne on his chariot he climbs to the height of the heaven,
• Nor yet when he plunges it headlong in ocean ruddy-glowing.
• There sudden ice-films curdle on streams in the midst of their flowing,360
• And iron-bound wheels on its frozen face the water sustains;
• Erewhile it gave welcome to ships, but now unto broad-beamed wains.
• Vessels of brass unsmitten are rifted, on wearers’ backs
• Stiffens the raiment; the wines men drink must be cleft with the axe.
• In a solid mass from floor to surface freezes the lake:365
• Bright daggers that hang from the unkempt beard doth the hard ice make.
• Meanwhile without ceasing it snows, that the air is all one cloud:
• The sheep are dying, the huge-framed steers in a cold white shroud
• Stand wrapped: the forest-deer crouch numbed, a huddled rout,
• ’Neath the ’wildering avalanche; scarce do the tips of their horns peep out.370
• Upon these men slip not the hounds from the leash, nor with nets do they snare,
• Nor drive them into the toils with the crimson feather-scare;
• But, as vainly their breasts against that mountain-barrier strain,
• They close on them, hew with the steel, while they bell in their terror and pain,
• And with clamour loud and exultant homeward they bear the slain.375
• That people in caves deep-delved under earth fleet carelessly
• A holiday-time: heaped logs and many a whole elm-tree
• Are rolled to their broad hearth-stones, and high on the flames up-piled.
• Here while they away the night in sport, and in revelry wild
• With ale and with cider sour do they mimic the southland wines.380
• In the land at the North-wind’s back, where the Bear in the zenith shines,
• So liveth a savage race, by the east-wind buffeted aye,
• And in shaggy fells of their dun-hued goats their frames they array.

• But if thy desire be for wool, each thorny brake do thou clear,
• All caltrops and burrs; unto rank-growing pasturage draw not near.385
• From the first let white sheep silky-fleeced be chosen of thee:
• But the ram, how white soever his outward form may be,
• Reject, if but under his mouth’s moist roof a black tongue lie,
• Lest he blur with dark-hued spots each fleece of his progeny:
• Look round in the teeming plain for another hornèd chief.390

• With wool so snowy for gift—if the tale be worthy belief—
• Thee, Moon-goddess, Pan, Arcadia’s God, did beguile and enthrall,
• To the deep woods summoning thee, nor didst thou despise his call.

• But who coveteth milk, lucerne and lotus-bloom let him bear
• With his own hands unto the pens, and salt-strewn grass lay there:395
• Thus more they desire to drink of the flood, and their udders swell
• The more, and a half-veiled savour of salt in the milk shall dwell.
• Some men from the very birth the mother’s teat forbid,
• With iron muzzle arming the yeanling mouth of the kid.
• Of the milk that was drawn when the sunrise wakened the day, that night400
• Are they wringing the curds, that milked in the sunset’s failing light
• At dawn do they press: the shepherd in crates to the town bears this,
• Or lightly besprinkled with salt stored up for the winter it is.

• Nor last in thy thoughts be the care of thy dogs, but alike do thou breed
• Swift wolf-hounds of Sparta and fierce Molossian mastiffs, and feed405
• On the fattening whey. When thou hast such warders of kine and sheep,
• Thou shalt dread not the thief in the night, nor the wolf’s swift stealthy leap,
• Nor the Spanish outlaw who darts unforeseen from his lurking-place.
• Often withal shalt thou hold the shy wild ass in chase,
• And with hounds shalt thou hunt the hare, and with hounds the fallow-deer.410
• Oft too from his forest-wallows with sound of their baying anear
• Shalt thou rouse and drive the boar, and oft through the mountains high
• From their clamour full on thy nets the stately stag shall fly.

• Learn also to burn in thy stalls the cedar’s scented wood,
• And to banish with galbanum-fumes the noisome water-snake’s brood.415
• Oft under sheds long undisturbed close-hidden doth lie
• A viper deadly to touch, shrinking scared from the light of the sky;
• Or an adder,—that pestilent scourge of the kine,—that is wont to creep
• ’Neath the shadowing thatch, and bespatter with venom oxen and sheep,
• Hath his nest in the ground. Snatch stones and staves, O shepherd thou!420
• As he rears a threatening crest, as his hissing throat swells now,
• Down dash him!—he flees!—hidden deep is his head, no longer bold,
• While his back’s mid-wreaths and the train of his tail’s last joints are unrolled,
• And the last of his coils drags out a slowly-trailing fold.
• In Calabrian glens withal is a snake, that most fell pest,425
• Who rolleth and writheth a scale-armed back, who upreareth a breast
• And a belly exceeding long with great spots closely set,
• Who, while yet there are streams overbrimming from full well-heads, while yet
• With the dewy spring and the south-wind’s rains the meadows are wet,
• Haunteth the pools; on their banks he dwelleth; he gorgeth here430

• His ravening maw with fish and with babbling frogs of the mere.
• But, when scorched dry is the fen, and rifted with heat earth lies,
• Forth darts to the waterless land, and, rolling blazing eyes,
• Goes ranging over the fields, thirst-fevered and frenzied with heat.
• Not then be I tempted to woo ’neath the blue sky slumber sweet,435
• Nor to lie outstretched on the grass of the wood’s ridge careless-dreaming,
• When, reborn from his cast-off slough, in youth’s renewal gleaming,
• Coiling he comes, and hath left in his lair his eggs or his young,
• And sunward uprears him, and darts from his mouth a three-forked tongue!

• Diseases, their causes and tokens, will I unto thee make plain.440
• Our sheep by a noisome scab are assailed, when the chilling rain
• And the frost, with its daggers of gleaming ice, have pierced down deep
• To the seat of life, or when the sweat to the late-sheared sheep
• Hath cloven unwashed, and prickly brambles have torn the flesh.
• Therefore do flockmasters bathe in running water fresh445
• The whole flock: plunged is the ram in a swirling river-pool,
• And sent down-stream slow-sailing, freighted with drenchèd wool.
• Or their new-shorn bodies the shepherd anointeth with oil-lees sour
• Mingled with silver-scum and with virgin sulphur-flour,
• And with pitch from Ida’s pines and with wax oil-softened blent,450
• And with squills and bitumen black, and with hellebore heavy of scent.
• Yea, for healing of their affliction there comes no happier chance
• Than this, if one hath the wit and the strength with the steel to lance
• The ulcer’s head: the mischief is fostered and lives by concealing,
• While the shepherd refuses to lay on the sore the hand of healing,455
• And idly sitting prays to the Gods for hopefuller signs.
• Nay more, when the pain with the very bones of the bleater twines,
• When it rages, and parching fever on joint and on limb doth prey,
• Much hath it availed by bleeding that fiery heat to allay,
• And to pierce in the cleft of the hoof the vein hard-throbbing with blood,460
• As use the Bisaltae to do, and Gelonians fierce of mood,
• When to Rhodope’s ridge and the wastes of the Getan folk they have fled,
• And with curdled milk, with the steed’s blood mingled, their cups brim red.

• What sheep soever thou markest that languidly steals to the shade,
• Or that bites not close, but listlessly crops but the tip of the blade,465
• Or that lies down tired in the mead as she pastures, and last of all
• Ever lags, and alone and late comes home at the evenfall,
• Then help there is none, but with steel thou must stamp out the plague, ere the dread,
• The cureless taint through the unsuspecting flock shall have spread.
• For not so thick with disaster a whirlwind sweeps from the seas470

• Bringing storm, as the manifold murrains. Not single victims disease
• Clutcheth: whole summer-pastures are suddenly swept away—
• The flock and the hope of the flock, a whole race gone in a day!
• Let him be my witness, who gazes on Alps that float on the sky,
• On Noric towers crag-built, on meads by Timavus that lie,475
• And sees now, long, long after the ruin, desolate made
• The realms of the shepherds, and leagues on leagues of unpeopled glade.

• Here, dropped from a tainted sky, a season of misery came
• On a land that fainted and drooped under autumn’s fever-flame,
• Dealing death to all manner of cattle, to every beast of the wild.480
• It poisoned the pools, with its venom the very grass was defiled.
• Nor plain was the pathway to death, but when through every vein
• Coursing, the fiery thirst had cramped each limb with pain,
• Once more did a watery humour flood the frame; each bone,
• By disease to a pulp broken down, it absorbed and made its own.485
• In mid-sacrifice oft the victim brought to the altar-side,
• While its brows were wreathed with the woollen fillet with white bands tied,
• Midst the faltering ministers fell to the earth in the last death-throe;
• Or, if haply the priest had dealt with the axe ere then the blow,
• When the entrails were laid on the altar, the fat refused to burn,490
• Nor, when asked of the will of the Gods, could the seer any answer return.
• The pale blood scarce can redden the knife at the throat that gleams,
• And the sand’s mere surface is darkly flushed with the thin life-streams.
• Here mid lush pastures the calves are dying on every hand,
• And render up sweet life by the full-heaped cribs as they stand.495
• Man’s lover, the dog, goeth mad; and racked are the sickening swine
• With a gasping cough; half-strangled with swollen throats they pine.
• In his strivings baffled staggers the once victorious steed,
• Forgetting to graze, from the fountain shrinking, and spurning the mead
• Oft with his hoof: his ears droop, sweat breaks out thereby500
• Fitful and chill, a forerunner of death: his coat is dry;
• Touch it, and tense and unyielding beneath thine hand doth it lie.
• Such death-signs are given in early days of the malady;
• But when, in its onward course, the disease grows virulent,
• Then are his eyes ablaze, and laboured, as though deep-pent,505
• Is his breathing, and laden with moans sometimes: the flanks from below
• Are straining with long-drawn sobs: from the nostrils a dark blood-flow
• Oozes: the rough tongue’s tip to the choked throat seems to grow.
• Relief hath been given by thrusting a horn ’twixt the teeth, wherethrough
• They poured wine—such was the only help for the dying they knew.510

• But this soon proved their destruction: with madness’s energy burning,
• With false strength even in the faintness of imminent death returning,—
• God save from such frenzy the good, and visit it on Rome’s foes!—
• Their bared teeth mangled and tore their limbs in the last death-throes.
• Lo, where the ox, as he reeketh upturning the stubborn loam,515
• Drops in his tracks; from his mouth blood spurteth mingled with foam,
• As he heaveth his dying groans. The hind sore sorroweth,
• And unyokes the steer that stands and grieves for his brother’s death:
• And there in the half-finished furrow buried he leaves the plough.
• No shades of the woodland-towers, no soft-grassed meadows now520
• Shall avail to requicken his heart, nor the hill-stream amber-brown
• That over his rock-shelves combing plainward hurrieth down.
• But unstrung are his flanks, his languid eyes ’neath a stupor droop:
• By its own weight downward borne doth his faint neck earthward stoop.
• What avail him his labours, his services?—what, that he toiled so hard525
• Turning the furrows? Yet never the strength of his frame was marred
• By the Massic gifts of the Wine-god, by course after course at the feast;
• But on leaves and on grass unadulterate feedeth the pure-lived beast:
• The limpid spring and the racing brook his chalices are,
• Nor by cares are his healthful slumbers broken and banished afar.530
• Never before, men say, were oxen sought in vain
• In that country for sacrifice unto Juno; never the wain
• Was by ill-matched buffaloes drawn to her high-built treasury-fane.
• Therefore with mattocks they painfully scratch the earth, with their nails
• Bury the seed in the soil: the yeoman straining hales,535
• The yoke on his own neck, waggons across the mountain’s brow.
• No wolf about the sheepfold lurketh in ambush now,
• Nor stalketh the flock in the darkness: a keener terror daunts
• The spoiler. Shy fallow-deer and timorous stags from their haunts
• Come down, and mid hounds and around men’s homes are they wandering.540
• Yea, the brood of the limitless sea, and every swimming thing
• On the verge of the strand, like corpses from shipwreck, are washed up high
• By the surf: to the rivers strangely the seals for refuge fly.
• Even the viper in vain doth his winding lair protect,
• But he dies, and the water-snake, his scales in terror erect.545
• To the very birds is the air unkind, for headlong they fall
• Down, leaving their life high up beneath the clouds’ dark pall.
• No change of diet availeth: remedies have but recoiled
• In ruin on them that have sought them; the masters of healing are foiled,
• Melampus of Amythaon, and Chiron, Phillyra’s son.550

• Unkennelled from Stygian gloom to the light rusheth raging on
• Ghastly Tisiphone, herding before her Disease and Dread,
• And higher day by day uplifts her insatiate head.
• With bleating of sheep and with multitudinous lowing the rivers
• And parched banks echo; the moaning along the hill-slopes shivers.555
• To whole herds now is she dealing destruction, their corpses are piled
• In the very stalls; they are rotting, with putrid horrors defiled,
• Till in pits men learn to hide them, and veil their corruption with soil;
• For utterly useless the skins were: it was but wasted toil
• With water to wash the flesh, or its purging with fire to essay.560
• Nay, they could shear not the fleeces, so eaten through were they
• By the plague and its foul discharge; nor the rotting web could they wear:
• Yea, if to don that deadly vesture any should dare,
• O’er the limbs spread burning pustules and sweat unclean and sour:
• And short was the respite granted before that awful hour565
• Of the Fire Accurst, of the fangs that the living flesh devour.

P. VERGILI MARONIS GEORGICON

LIBER QUARTUS.

• Protinus aërii mellis caelestia dona
• Exsequar. Hanc etiam, Maecenas, aspice partem.
• Admiranda tibi levium spectacula rerum,
• Magnanimosque duces totiusque ordine gentis
• Mores et studia et populos et proelia dicam.5
• In tenui labor; at tenuis non gloria, si quem
• Numina laeva sinunt auditque vocatus Apollo.

• Principio sedes apibus statioque petenda,
• Quo neque sit ventis aditus —nam pabula venti
• Ferre domum prohibent—neque oves haedique petulci10
• Floribus insultent, aut errans bucula campo
• Decutiat rorem et surgentes atterat herbas.
• Absint et picti squalentia terga lacerti
• Pinguibus a stabulis, meropesque, aliaeque volucres,
• Et manibus Procne pectus signata cruentis;15
• Omnia nam late vastant ipsasque volantes
• Ore ferunt dulcem nidis inmitibus escam.
• At liquidi fontes et stagna virentia musco
• Adsint, et tenuis fugiens per gramina rivus,
• Palmaque vestibulum aut ingens oleaster inumbret,20
• Ut, cum prima novi ducent examina reges
• Vere suo, ludetque favis emissa iuventus,
• Vicina invitet decedere ripa calori,
• Obviaque hospitiis teneat frondentibus arbos.
• In medium, seu stabit iners seu profluet humor,25
• Transversas salices et grandia coniice saxa,
• Pontibus ut crebris possint consistere et alas
• Pandere ad aestivum solem, si forte morantes
• Sparserit aut praeceps Neptuno inmerserit Eurus.
• Haec circum casiae virides et olentia late30

• Serpylla et graviter spirantis copia thymbrae
• Floreat, inriguumque bibant violaria fontem.
• Ipsa autem, seu corticibus tibi suta cavatis,
• Seu lento fuerint alvaria vimine texta,
• Angustos habeant aditus; nam frigore mella35
• Cogit hiemps, eademque calor liquefacta remittit.
• Utraque vis apibus pariter metuenda; neque illae
• Nequiquam in tectis certatim tenuia cera
• Spiramenta linunt, fucoque et floribus oras
• Explent, collectumque haec ipsa ad munera gluten40
• Et visco et Phrygiae servant pice lentius Idae.
• Saepe etiam effossis, si vera est fama, latebris
• Sub terra fovere larem, penitusque repertae
• Pumicibusque cavis exesaeque arboris antro.
• Tu tamen et levi rimosa cubilia limo45
• Ungue fovens circum et raras superiniice frondes.
• Neu propius tectis taxum sine, neve rubentes
• Ure foco cancros, altae neu crede paludi,
• Aut ubi odor caeni gravis, aut ubi concava pulsu
• Saxa sonant vocisque offensa resultat imago.50

• Quod superest, ubi pulsam hiemem sol aureus egit
• Sub terras caelumque aestiva luce reclusit,
• Illae continuo saltus silvasque peragrant
• Purpureosque metunt flores et flumina libant
• Summa leves. Hinc nescio qua dulcedine laetae55
• Progeniem nidosque fovent, hinc arte recentes
• Excudunt ceras et mella tenacia fingunt.
• Hinc ubi iam emissum caveis ad sidera caeli
• Nare per aestatem liquidam suspexeris agmen
• Obscuramque trahi vento mirabere nubem,60
• Contemplator: aquas dulces et frondea semper
• Tecta petunt. Huc tu iussos adsperge sapores,
• Trita melisphylla et cerinthae ignobile gramen,
• Tinnitusque cie et Matris quate cymbala circum:
• Ipsae consident medicatis sedibus, ipsae65
• Intima more suo sese in cunabula condent

• Sin autem ad pugnam exierint—nam saepe duobus
• Regibus incessit magno discordia motu;
• Continuoque animos volgi et trepidantia bello
• Corda licet longe praesciscere; namque morantes70

• Martius ille aeris rauci canor increpat, et vox
• Auditur fractos sonitus imitata tubarum;
• Tum trepidae inter se coeunt, pennisque coruscant,
• Spiculaque exacuunt rostris aptantque lacertos,
• Et circa regem atque ipsa ad praetoria densae75
• Miscentur, magnisque vocant clamoribus hostem.
• Ergo ubi ver nactae sudum camposque patentes,
• Erumpunt portis: concurritur, aethere in alto
• Fit sonitus, magnum mixtae glomerantur in orbem
• Praecipitesque cadunt; non densior aëre grando,80
• Nec de concussa tantum pluit ilice glandis.
• Ipsi per medias acies insignibus alis
• Ingentes animos angusto in pectore versant,
• Usque adeo obnixi non cedere, dum gravis aut hos
• Aut hos versa fuga victor dare terga subegit.85
• Hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta
• Pulveris exigui iactu compressa quiescunt.

• Verum ubi ductores acie revocaveris ambo,
• Deterior qui visus, eum, ne prodigus obsit,
• Dede neci; melior vacua sine regnet in aula.90
• Alter erit maculis auro squalentibus ardens;
• Nam duo sunt genera: hic melior, insignis et ore
• Et rutilis clarus squamis; ille horridus alter
• Desidia, latamque trahens inglorius alvum.
• Ut binae regum facies, ita corpora plebis.95
• Namque aliae turpes horrent, ceu pulvere ab alto
• Cum venit et sicco terram spuit ore viator
• Aridus; elucent aliae et fulgore coruscant,
• Ardentes auro et paribus lita corpora guttis.
• Haec potior suboles; hinc caeli tempore certo100
• Dulcia mella premes, nec tantum dulcia, quantum
• Et liquida et durum Bacchi domitura saporem.

• At cum incerta volant caeloque examina ludunt
• Contemnuntque favos et frigida tecta relinquunt,
• Instabiles animos ludo prohibebis inani.105
• Nec magnus prohibere labor: tu regibus alas
• Eripe; non illis quisquam cunctantibus altum
• Ire iter aut castris audebit vellere signa.
• Invitent croceis halantes floribus horti
• Et custos furum atque avium cum falce saligna110

• Hellespontiaci servet tutela Priapi.
• Ipse thymum pinosque ferens de montibus altis
• Tecta serat late circum, cui talia curae;
• Ipse labore manum duro terat, ipse feraces
• Figat humo plantas et amicos inriget imbres.115

• Atque equidem, extremo ni iam sub fine laborum
• Vela traham et terris festinem advertere proram,
• Forsitan et, pingues hortos quae cura colendi
• Ornaret, canerem, biferique rosaria Paesti,
• Quoque modo potis gauderent intiba rivis120
• Et virides apio ripae, tortusque per herbam
• Cresceret in ventrem cucumis; nec sera comantem
• Narcissum aut flexi tacuissem vimen acanthi,
• Pallentesque hederas et amantes litora myrtos.
• Namque sub Oebaliae memini me turribus altis,125
• Qua niger humectat flaventia culta Galaesus,
• Corycium vidisse senem, cui pauca relicti
• Iugera ruris erant, nec fertilis illa iuvencis,
• Nec pecori opportuna seges, nec commoda Baccho;
• Hic rarum tamen in dumis olus albaque circum130
• Lilia verbenasque premens vescumque papaver,
• Regum aequabat opes animis, seraque revertens
• Nocte domum dapibus mensas onerabat inemptis.
• Primus vere rosam atque autumno carpere poma,
• Et cum tristis hiemps etiamnum frigore saxa135
• Rumperet et glacie cursus frenaret aquarum,
• Ille comam mollis iam tondebat hyacinthi
• Aestatem increpitans seram zephyrosque morantes.
• Ergo apibus fetis idem atque examine multo
• Primus abundare et spumantia cogere pressis140
• Mella favis; illi tiliae atque uberrima pinus;
• Quotque in flore novo pomis se fertilis arbos
• Induerat, totidem autumno matura tenebat.
• Ille etiam seras in versum distulit ulmos
• Eduramque pirum et spinos iam pruna ferentes,145
• Iamque ministrantem platanum potantibus umbras.
• Verum haec ipse equidem spatiis exclusus iniquis
• Praetereo atque aliis post me memoranda relinquo.

• Nunc age, naturas apibus quas Iuppiter ipse
• Addidit, expediam, pro qua mercede canoros150

• Curetum sonitus crepitantiaque aera secutae
• Dictaeo caeli regem pavere sub antro.
• Solae communes natos, consortia tecta
• Urbis habent, magnisque agitant sub legibus aevum,
• Et patriam solae et certos novere penates;155
• Venturaeque hiemis memores aestate laborem
• Experiuntur et in medium quaesita reponunt.
• Namque aliae victu invigilant et foedere pacto
• Exercentur agris; pars intra saepta domorum
• Narcissi lacrimam et lentum de cortice gluten160
• Prima favis ponunt fundamina, deinde tenaces
• Suspendunt ceras; aliae spem gentis adultos
• Educunt fetus; aliae purissima mella
• Stipant, et liquido distendunt nectare cellas.
• Sunt, quibus ad portas cecidit custodia sorti,165
• Inque vicem speculantur aquas et nubila caeli,
• Aut onera accipiunt venientum, aut agmine facto
• Ignavum fucos pecus a praesepibus arcent.
• Fervet opus, redolentque thymo fragrantia mella.
• Ac veluti lentis Cyclopes fulmina massis170
• Cum properant, alii taurinis follibus auras
• Accipiunt redduntque, alii stridentia tingunt
• Aera lacu; gemit inpositis incudibus Aetna;
• Illi inter sese magna vi bracchia tollunt
• In numerum, versantque tenaci forcipe ferrum:175
• Non aliter, si parva licet componere magnis,
• Cecropias innatus apes amor urguet habendi,
• Munere quamque suo. Grandaevis oppida curae
• Et munire favos et daedala fingere tecta.
• At fessae multa referunt se nocte minores,180
• Crura thymo plenae; pascuntur et arbuta passim
• Et glaucas salices casiamque crocumque rubentem
• Et pinguem tiliam et ferrugineos hyacinthos.
• Omnibus una quies operum, labor omnibus unus.
• Mane ruunt portis; nusquam mora; rursus easdem185
• Vesper ubi e pastu tandem decedere campis
• Admonuit, tum tecta petunt, tum corpora curant;
• Fit sonitus, mussantque oras et limina circum.
• Post, ubi iam thalamis se composuere, siletur
• In noctem, fessosque sopor suus occupat artus.190

• Nec vero a stabulis pluvia impendente recedunt
• Longius, aut credunt caelo adventantibus euris;
• Sed circum tutae sub moenibus urbis aquantur,
• Excursusque breves temptant, et saepe lapillos,
• Ut cymbae instabiles fluctu iactante saburram,195
• Tollunt; his sese per inania nubila librant.
• Illum adeo placuisse apibus mirabere morem,
• Quod neque concubitu indulgent, nec corpora segnes
• In Venerem solvunt, aut fetus nixibus edunt;
• Verum ipsae e foliis natos, e suavibus herbis200
• Ore legunt, ipsae regem parvosque Quirites
• Sufficiunt, aulasque et cerea regna refigunt.
• Saepe etiam duris errando in cotibus alas
• Attrivere, ultroque animam sub fasce dedere:
• Tantus amor florum et generandi gloria mellis.205
• Ergo ipsas quamvis angusti terminus aevi
• Excipiat—neque enim plus septima ducitur aestas—
• At genus immortale manet, multosque per annos
• Stat fortuna domus, et avi numerantur avorum.
• Praeterea regem non sic Aegyptos et ingens210
• Lydia nec populi Parthorum aut Medus Hydaspes
• Observant. Rege incolumi mens omnibus una est;
• Amisso rupere fidem, constructaque mella
• Diripuere ipsae et crates solvere favorum.
• Ille operum custos, illum admirantur, et omnes215
• Circumstant fremitu denso stipantque frequentes;
• Et saepe attollunt umeris et corpora bello
• Obiectant, pulchramque petunt per volnera mortem.

• His quidam signis atque haec exempla secuti
• Esse apibus partem divinae mentis et haustus220
• Aetherios dixere; deum namque ire per omnes
• Terrasque tractusque maris caelumque profundum;
• Hinc pecudes, armenta, viros, genus omne ferarum,
• Quemque sibi tenues nascentem arcessere vitas;
• Scilicet huc reddi deinde ac resoluta referri225
• Omnia, nec morti esse locum, sed viva volare
• Sideris in numerum atque alto succedere caelo.

• Si quando sedem angustam servataque mella
• Thesauris relines, prius haustu sparsus aquarum
• Ora fove, fumosque manu praetende sequaces.230

• Bis gravidos cogunt fetus, duo tempora messis,
• Taygete simul os terris ostendit honestum
• Plias, et Oceani spretos pede reppulit amnes,
• Aut eadem sidus fugiens ubi Piscis aquosi
• Tristior hibernas caelo descendit in undas.235
• Illis ira modum supra est, laesaeque venenum
• Morsibus inspirant, et spicula caeca relinquunt
• Adfixae venis, animasque in volnere ponunt.
• Sin duram metues hiemem parcesque futuro,
• Contunsosque animos et res miserabere fractas,240
• At suffire thymo cerasque recidere inanes
• Quis dubitet? nam saepe favos ignotus adedit
• Stellio, et lucifugis congesta cubilia blattis,
• Immunisque sedens aliena ad pabula fucus;
• Aut asper crabro inparibus se inmiscuit armis,245
• Aut dirum tiniae genus, aut invisa Minervae
• Laxos in foribus suspendit aranea casses.
• Quo magis exhaustae fuerint, hoc acrius omnes
• Incumbent generis lapsi sarcire ruinas,
• Complebuntque foros et floribus horrea texent.250

• Si vero, quoniam casus apibus quoque nostros
• Vita tulit, tristi languebunt corpora morbo—
• Quod fam non dubiis poteris cognoscere signis:
• Continuo est aegris alius color; horrida voltum
• Deformat macies; tum corpora luce carentum255
• Exportant tectis et tristia funera ducunt;
• Aut illae pedibus connexae ad limina pendent,
• Aut intus clausis cunctantur in aedibus, omnes
• Ignavaeque fame et contracto frigore pigrae;
• Tum sonus auditur gravior, tractimque susurrant,260
• Frigidus ut quondam silvis inmurmurat Auster,
• Ut mare sollicitum stridit refluentibus undis,
• Aestuat ut clausis rapidus fornacibus ignis:—
• Hic iam galbaneos suadebo incendere odores
• Mellaque harundineis inferre canalibus, ultro265
• Hortantem et fessas ad pabula nota vocantem.
• Proderit et tunsum gallae admiscere saporem
• Arentesque rosas, aut igni pinguia multo
• Defruta, vel psithia passos de vite racemos,
• Cecropiumque thymum et grave olentia centaurea.270

• Est etiam flos in pratis, cui nomen amello
• Fecere agricolae, facilis quaerentibus herba;
• Namque uno ingentem tollit de caespite silvam,
• Aureus ipse, sed in foliis, quae plurima circum
• Funduntur, violae sublucet purpura nigrae;275
• Saepe deum nexis ornatae torquibus arae;
• Asper in ore sapor; tonsis in vallibus illum
• Pastores et curva legunt prope flumina Mellae.
• Huius odorato radices incoque Baccho,
• Pabulaque in foribus plenis adpone canistris.280

• Sed si quem proles subito defecerit omnis,
• Nec, genus unde novae stirpis revocetur, habebit,
• Tempus et Arcadii memoranda inventa magistri
• Pandere, quoque modo caesis iam saepe iuvencis
• Insincerus apes tulerit cruor. Altius omnem285
• Expediam prima repetens ab origine famam.
• Nam qua Pellaei gens fortunata Canopi
• Accolit effuso stagnantem flumine Nilum,
• Et circum pictis vehitur sua rura phaselis,
• Quaque pharetratae vicinia Persidis urguet,290
• Et diversa ruens septem discurrit in ora
• Usque coloratis amnis devexus ab Indis,
• Et viridem Aegyptum nigra fecundat harena;
• Omnis in hac certam regio iacit arte salutem.
• Exiguus primum atque ipsos contractus in usus295
• Eligitur locus; hunc angustique imbrice tecti
• Parietibusque premunt artis, et quattuor addunt,
• Quattuor a ventis obliqua luce fenestras.
• Tum vitulus bima curvans iam cornua fronte
• Quaeritur; huic geminae nares et spiritus oris300
• Multa reluctanti obstruitur, plagisque perempto
• Tunsa per integram solvuntur viscera pellem.
• Sic positum in clauso linquunt, et ramea costis
• Subiiciunt fragmenta, thymum casiasque recentes.
• Hoc geritur Zephyris primum inpellentibus undas,305
• Ante novis rubeant quam prata coloribus, ante
• Garrula quam tignis nidum suspendat hirundo.
• Interea teneris tepefactus in ossibus humor
• Aestuat, et visenda modis animalia miris
• Trunca pedum primo, mox et stridentia pennis,310

• Miscentur, tenuemque magis magis aëra carpunt,
• Donec, ut aestivis effusus nubibus imber,
• Erupere, aut ut, nervo pulsante, sagittae,
• Prima leves ineunt si quando proelia Parthi.

• Quis deus hanc, Musae, quis nobis extudit artem?315
• Unde nova ingressus hominum experientia cepit?
• Pastor Aristaeus fugiens Peneia Tempe,
• Amissis, ut fama, apibus morboque fameque,
• Tristis ad extremi sacrum caput adstitit amnis,
• Multa querens, atque hac adfatus voce parentem:320
• “Mater, Cyrene mater, quae gurgitis huius
• Ima tenes, quid me praeclara stirpe deorum—
• Si modo, quem perhibes, pater est Thymbraeus Apollo—
• Invisum fatis genuisti? aut quo tibi nostri
• Pulsus amor? quid me caelum sperare iubebas?325
• En etiam hunc ipsum vitae mortalis honorem,
• Quem mihi vix frugum et pecudum custodia sollers
• Omnia temptanti extuderat, te matre relinquo.
• Quin age et ipsa manu felices erue silvas,
• Fer stabulis inimicum ignem atque interfice messes,330
• Ure sata, et duram in vites molire bipennem,
• Tanta meae si te ceperunt taedia laudis.”

• At mater sonitum thalamo sub fluminis alti
• Sensit. Eam circum Milesia vellera Nymphae
• Carpebant hyali saturo fucata colore,335
• Drymoque Xanthoque Ligeaque Phyllodoceque,
• Caesariem effusae nitidam per candida colla,
• Nesaee Spioque Thaliaque Cymodoceque,
• Cydippeque et flava Lycorias, altera virgo,
• Altera tum primos Lucinae experta labores,340
• Clioque et Beroe soror, Oceanitides ambae,
• Ambae auro, pictis incinctae pellibus ambae,
• Atque Ephyre atque Opis et Asia Deiopea,
• Et tandem positis velox Arethusa sagittis,
• Inter quas curam Clymene narrabat inanem345
• Volcani, Martisque dolos et dulcia furta,
• Aque Chao densos divom numerabat amores.
• Carmine quo captae dum fusis mollia pensa
• Devolvunt, iterum maternas impulit aures
• Luctus Aristaei, vitreisque sedilibus omnes350

• Obstipuere; sed ante alias Arethusa sorores
• Prospiciens summa flavum caput extulit unda,
• Et procul: “O gemitu non frustra exterrita tanto,
• Cyrene soror, ipse tibi, tua maxuma cura,
• Tristis Aristaeus Penei genitoris ad undam355
• Stat lacrimans, et te crudelem nomine dicit.”
• Huic percussa nova mentem formidine mater,
• “Duc, age, duc ad nos; fas illi limina divom
• Tangere” ait. Simul alta iubet discedere late
• Flumina, qua iuvenis gressus inferret. At illum360
• Curvata in montis faciem circumstetit unda,
• Accepitque sinu vasto misitque sub amnem.
• Iamque domum mirans genetricis et humida regna
• Speluncisque lacus clausos lucosque sonantes
• Ibat, et ingenti motu stupefactus aquarum365
• Omnia sub magna labentia flumina terra
• Spectabat diversa locis, Phasimque Lycumque,
• Et caput, unde altus primum se erumpit Enipeus,
• Saxosusque sonans Hypanis, Mysusque Caicus,
• Unde pater Tiberinus, et unde Aniena fluenta,370
• Et gemina auratus taurino cornua voltu
• Eridanus, quo non alius per pinguia culta
• In mare purpureum violentior effluit amnis.
• Postquam est in thalami pendentia pumice tecta
• Perventum, et nati fletus cognovit inanes375
• Cyrene, manibus liquidos dant ordine fontes
• Germanae, tonsisque ferunt mantelia villis;
• Pars epulis onerant mensas, et plena reponunt
• Pocula, Panchaeis adolescunt ignibus arae,
• Et mater, “Cape Maeonii carchesia Bacchi:380
• Oceano libemus” ait. Simul ipsa precatur
• Oceanumque patrem rerum Nymphasque sorores,
• Centum quae silvas, centum quae flumina servant,
• Ter liquido ardentem perfudit nectare Vestam,
• Ter flamma ad summum tecti subiecta reluxit.385
• Omine quo firmans animum sic incipit ipsa:
• “Est in Carpathio Neptuni gurgite vates,
• Caeruleus Proteus, magnum qui piscibus aequor
• Et iuncto bipedum curru metitur equorum.
• Hic nunc Emathiae portus patriamque revisit390

• Pallenen; hunc et Nymphae veneramur et ipse
• Grandaevus Nereus; novit namque omnia vates,
• Quae sint, quae fuerint, quae mox ventura trahantur;
• Quippe ita Neptuno visum est, immania cuius
• Armenta et turpes pascit sub gurgite phocas.395
• Hic tibi, nate, prius vinclis capiendus, ut omnem
• Expediat morbi causam eventusque secundet.
• Nam sine vi non ulla dabit praecepta, neque illum
• Orando flectes; vim duram et vincula capto
• Tende; doli circum haec demum frangentur inanes.400
• Ipsa ego te, medios cum sol accenderit aestus,
• Cum sitiunt herbae, et pecori iam gratior umbra est,
• In secreta senis ducam, quo fessus ab undis
• Se recipit, facile ut somno adgrediare iacentem.
• Verum ubi correptum manibus vinclisque tenebis,405
• Tum variae eludent species atque ora ferarum.
• Fiet enim subito sus horridus, atraque tigris,
• Squamosusque draco, et fulva cervice leaena,
• Aut acrem flammae sonitum dabit atque ita vinclis
• Excidet, aut in aquas tenues dilapsus abibit.410
• Sed quanto ille magis formas se vertet in omnes,
• Tanto, nate, magis contende tenacia vincla,
• Donec talis erit mutato corpore, qualem
• Videris, incepto tegeret cum lumina somno.”
• Haec ait, et liquidum ambrosiae diffundit odorem,415
• Quo totum nati corpus perduxit; at illi
• Dulcis compositis spiravit crinibus aura,
• Atque habilis membris venit vigor. Est specus ingens
• Exesi latere in montis, quo plurima vento
• Cogitur inque sinus scindit sese unda reductos,420
• Deprensis olim statio tutissima nautis;
• Intus se vasti Proteus tegit obiice saxi.
• Hic iuvenem in latebris aversum a lumine Nympha
• Collocat; ipsa procul nebulis obscura resistit.
• Iam rapidus torrens sitientes Sirius Indos425
• Ardebat caelo, et medium sol igneus orbem
• Hauserat; arebant herbae, et cava flumina siccis
• Faucibus ad limum radii tepefacta coquebant:
• Cum Proteus consueta petens e fluctibus antra
• Ibat; eum vasti circum gens humida ponti430

• Exultans rorem late dispergit amarum;
• Sternunt se somno diversae in litore phocae:
• Ipse, velut stabuli custos in montibus olim,
• Vesper ubi e pastu vitulos ad tecta reducit,
• Auditisque lupos acuunt balatibus agni,435
• Considit scopulo medius, numerumque recenset.
• Cuius Aristaeo quoniam est oblata facultas,
• Vix defessa senem passus componere membra,
• Cum clamore ruit magno, manicisque iacentem
• Occupat. Ille suae contra non immemor artis440
• Omnia transformat sese in miracula rerum,
• Ignemque horribilemque feram fluviumque liquentem.
• Verum ubi nulla fugam reperit fallacia, victus
• In sese redit atque hominis tandem ore locutus:
• “Nam quis te, iuvenum confidentissime, nostras445
• Iussit adire domos? quidve hinc petis?” inquit. At ille:
• “Scis, Proteu; scis ipse; neque est te fallere quicquam;
• Sed tu desine velle. Deum praecepta secuti
• Venimus, hinc lassis quaesitum oracula rebus.”
• Tantum effatus. Ad haec vates vi denique multa450
• Ardentes oculos intorsit lumine glauco,
• Et graviter frendens sic fatis ora resolvit:

• “Non te nullius exercent numinis irae;
• Magna luis commissa: tibi has miserabilis Orpheus
• Haudquaquam ob meritum poenas, ni fata resistant,455
• Suscitat, et rapta graviter pro coniuge saevit.
• Illa quidem, dum te fugeret per flumina praeceps,
• Immanem ante pedes hydrum moritura puella
• Servantem ripas alta non vidit in herba.
• At chorus aequalis Dryadum clamore supremos460
• Implerunt montes; flerunt Rhodopeiae arces,
• Altaque Pangaea, et Rhesi Mavortia tellus,
• Atque Getae atque Hebrus et Actias Orithyia.
• Ipse cava solans aegrum testudine amorem
• Te, dulcis coniunx, te solo in litore secum,465
• Te veniente die, te decedente canebat.
• Taenarias etiam fauces, alta ostia Ditis,
• Et caligantem nigra formidine lucum
• Ingressus, manesque adiit regemque tremendum,
• Nesciaque humanis precibus mansuescere corda.470

• At cantu commotae Erebi de sedibus imis
• Umbrae ibant tenues simulacraque luce carentum,
• Quam multa in foliis avium se milia condunt,
• Vesper ubi aut hibernus agit de montibus imber,
• Matres atque viri defunctaque corpora vita475
• Magnanimum heroum, pueri innuptaeque puellae,
• Impositique rogis iuvenes ante ora parentum;
• Quos circum limus niger et deformis harundo
• Cocyti tardaque palus inamabilis unda
• Alligat, et noviens Styx interfusa coercet.480
• Quin ipsae stupuere domus atque intima Leti
• Tartara caeruleosque implexae crinibus angues
• Eumenides, tenuitque inhians tria Cerberus ora,
• Atque Ixionii vento rota constitit orbis.
• Iamque pedem referens casus evaserat omnes,485
• Redditaque Eurydice superas veniebat ad auras
• Pone sequens,—namque hanc dederat Proserpina legem—
• Cum subita incautum dementia cepit amantem,
• Ignoscenda quidem, scirent si ignoscere Manes:
• Restitit, Eurydicenque suam iam luce sub ipsa490
• Immemor heu! victusque animi respexit. Ibi omnis
• Effusus labor, atque immitis rupta tyranni
• Foedera, terque fragor stagnis auditus Avernis.
• Illa ‘Quis et me,’ inquit, ‘miseram et te perdidit, Orpheu,
• Quis tantus furor? En iterum crudelia retro495
• Fata vocant, conditque natantia lumina somnus.
• Iamque vale: feror ingenti circumdata nocte
• Invalidasque tibi tendens, heu non tua, palmas!’
• Dixit, et ex oculis subito, ceu fumus in auras
• Commixtus tenues, fugit diversa, neque illum,500
• Prensantem nequiquam umbras et multa volentem
• Dicere, praeterea vidit, nec portitor Orci
• Amplius obiectam passus transire paludem.
• Quid faceret? quo se rapta bis coniuge ferret?
• Quo fletu Manes, qua numina voce moveret?505
• Illa quidem Stygia nabat iam frigida cumba.
• Septem illum totos perhibent ex ordine menses
• Rupe sub aëria deserti ad Strymonis undam
• Flevisse, et gelidis haec evolvisse sub antris,
• Mulcentem tigris et agentem carmine quercus;510

• Qualis populea maerens philomela sub umbra
• Amissos queritur fetus, quos durus arator
• Observans nido implumes detraxit; at illa
• Flet noctem, ramoque sedens miserabile carmen
• Integrat, et maestis late loca questibus implet.515
• Nulla Venus, non ulli animum flexere hymenaei.
• Solus Hyperboreas glacies Tanaimque nivalem
• Arvaque Rhipaeis numquam viduata pruinis
• Lustrabat, raptam Eurydicen atque inrita Ditis
• Dona querens; spretae Ciconum quo munere matres520
• Inter sacra deum nocturnique orgia Bacchi
• Discerptum latos iuvenem sparsere per agros.
• Tum quoque marmorea caput a cervice revolsum
• Gurgite cum medio portans Oeagrius Hebrus
• Volveret, Eurydicen vox ipsa et frigida lingua525
• ‘Ah miseram Eurydicen!’ anima fugiente vocabat;
• Eurydicen toto referebant flumine ripae.”
• Haec Proteus, et se iactu dedit aequor in altum,
• Quaque dedit, spumantem undam sub vertice torsit.

• At non Cyrene; namque ultro adfata timentem:530
• “Nate, licet tristes animo deponere curas.
• Haec omnis morbi causa, hinc miserabile Nymphae,
• Cum quibus illa choros lucis agitabat in altis,
• Exitium misere apibus. Tu munera supplex
• Tende, petens pacem, et faciles venerare Napaeas;535
• Namque dabunt veniam votis, irasque remittent.
• Sed modus orandi qui sit, prius ordine dicam.
• Quattuor eximios praestanti corpore tauros,
• Qui tibi nunc viridis depascunt summa Lycaei,
• Delige, et intacta totidem cervice iuvencas.540
• Quattuor his aras alta ad delubra dearum
• Constitue, et sacrum iugulis demitte cruorem,
• Corporaque ipsa boum frondoso desere luco.
• Post, ubi nona suos Aurora ostenderit ortus,
• Inferias Orphei Lethaea papavera mittes,545
• Et nigram mactabis ovem, lucumque revisens
• Placatam Eurydicen vitula venerabere caesa.”
• Haud mora; continuo matris praecepta facessit;
• Ad delubra venit, monstratas excitat aras;
• Quattuor eximios praestanti corpore tauros550

• • Ducit, et intacta totidem cervice iuvencas.
  • Post, ubi nona suos Aurora induxerat ortus,
  • Inferias Orphei mittit, lucumque revisit.
  • Hic vero subitum ac dictu mirabile monstrum
  • Aspiciunt, liquefacta boum per viscera toto555
  • Stridere apes utero et ruptis effervere costis
  • Immensasque trahi nubes, iamque arbore summa
  • Confluere et lentis uvam demittere ramis.
• • Haec super arvorum cultu pecorumque canebam
  • Et super arboribus, Caesar dum magnus ad altum560
  • Fulminat Euphraten bello, victorque volentes
  • Per populos dat iura, viamque adfectat Olympo.
  • Illo Vergilium me tempore dulcis alebat
  • Parthenope, studiis florentem ignobilis oti,
  • Carmina qui lusi pastorum, audaxque iuventa,565
  • Tityre, te patulae cecini sub tegmine fagi.

THE GEORGICS OF VIRGIL.

BOOK IV.

• Next will I tell of the air-borne honey, a gift from the skies.
• Unto this part too of my song, Maecenas, turn thine eyes.
• A world in miniature thine admiration claims:
• Its chiefs heroic-hearted, its people’s life, their aims,
• Their tribes, their wars—in order will I unfold to thee all.5
• Slight is the theme—not slight the glory, if but no wall
• Of hindrance by Gods be raised, if Apollo hearken my call.

• First, for thy bees a home of an aspect meet must thou find
• Access whereunto the winds win not—for against the wind
• Can they sail not home with their spoils—nor where kids, ever butting in play,10
• Nor sheep tread down the flowers, nor kine, o’er the meads as they stray,
• Brush away dew, and trample down the herbs as they spring.
• Banished be spangled lizards with backs scale-glistering
• From the full-fraught hives, all bee-eating birds through the woods that flit,
• And the swallow, with murder’s tale on her breast by her own hands writ;15
• For they spread on all sides havoc, they pounce on the bees in mid-air,
• And their beaks to their ruthless nestlings that delicate morsel bear.
• But limpid springs, and pools that mirror the green-cushioned moss
• Be there hard by, and a lawn with a thin stream fleeting across.
• O’er their porch let a huge wild olive or palm stretch shadowing arms,20
• That, when in the dear spring new kings lead forth first-born swarms,
• And their youth, from the combs unprisoned, are dancing to and fro,
• The near stream’s bank may woo them away from the sun’s hot glow,
• And its green hospitality full in their path that tree may bestow.
• Mid the water—or standing pool, or racing brooklet’s flow—25
• Branches of willow to span it, and island-stones do thou lay,
• That on many a bridge they may settle, and spread to the summer-sun’s ray
• Their wings, if the east-wind haply, as slowly they won their way,
• May have whelmed them in this their ocean, or splashed at the least with its spray.
• All round let casia green, and the thyme that afar doth fling30

• Its odours, and savory heavy of scent be blossoming
• In abundance, and clumps of the violet drink of the rippling spring.
• Let the hives—whether curving sheets of bark have been sewn to thy mind
• Together, or be they of pliant sprays of the osier twined—
• Have doorways narrow; for frozen solid by winter’s cold35
• Is the honey; by heat is it melted and spilt from the honeycomb-mould.
• By thy bees is either extreme alike to be feared; nor for naught
• Do they labour to smear thin rifts in their roofs with plaster wrought
• Of wax, and with pollen of flowers fill chinks and crevices:
• And for this same service they gather and store in their treasuries40
• Gum closer-cleaving than birdlime or pitch from Ida brought.
• Oft, too, do they tunnel them lairs underground, if report lieth not,
• And make them a warm home there, and their nests have been found deep-sunk
• In sandstone-clefts or the cavernous heart of an old tree-trunk.
• Thou help them—with smooth clay oversmeared do thou warmly cover45
• Their crannied sleeping-bowers, and straw leaves thinly thereover.
• Suffer no yew-tree nigh to their house, nor crab-shells red
• Burn there on a hearth, and a deep-mired marsh for their sake do thou dread,
• And the fetid odour of slime, or where ring from shocks of sound
• Arched rocks, where phantom voices from cliffs cry-smitten rebound.50

• For the rest, when winter in rout by the golden sun is driven
• ’Neath the earth, and by summer’s light unbarred are the gates of heaven,
• Straightway through woodland-glade and forest they wing their flight,
• They harvest the splendour of flowers; from the stream’s face, hovering light,
• They sip, and thereafter, with some strange rapture joyful-souled,
• Nestlings and nest they cherish, and then do they cunningly mould
• Fresh wax, and fashion the cleaving honey’s molten gold.
• This done, when, pouring forth from their crypts to the stars of the sky,
• Through the clear summer air thou beholdest their army floating on high,
• And the marvellous dusky cloud trailed down the wind afar,60
• Mark well—by fresh-flowing waters ever attracted they are,
• And by leaf-laden bowers: the scents that I bid thee spread thou for them,
• Even these—bruised balm and the honeywort’s lightly accounted stem.
• Let the tinkling of brass, let the clash of the Great Mother’s cymbals upleap.
• Down on the odorous resting-place of themselves will they sweep;
• Into the cradling hive’s depths after their wont will they creep.

• But if they go forth to war—for jealousy ’twixt two kings
• Oft-times with turmoil vast her apple of discord flings—
• Thou shalt straightway discern from afar how their folk in their fury share,
• How their hearts are thrilling with war; for the strident clarion’s blare,70

• The voice of the War-god, cheereth the laggards on, and a cry
• Is heard like the shattering trumpet’s note shrilling wild and high.
• In hot haste then they muster: flicker and flash their wings;
• They make ready for action their arms, they whet on their beaks their stings:
• And around their lord by the royal pavilion the dense-thronged rout75
• Rallies: they challenge the foe with multitudinous shout.
• They but wait for a bright spring day, for an open battle-field fair,
• Then pour through their gates. They meet in the battle-shock: high in air
• Clangour awakes: in a huge orbed cloud are they mingled and massed,
• Wherefrom ever headlong they fall; never hail more thick and fast80
• Descends, nor the acorns down from the shaken oak-tree cast.
• Through the heart of the clashing squadrons on wings resplendent fleet
• Their kings, for the hearts of giants in those small bosoms beat.
• So sternly straining, unflinching they bide, till the crushing might
• Of the victor constrain his foes to turn their backs in flight.85
• These tempests of passion, yea, such conflicts Titanic as these,
• By a handful of dust cast o’er them are quelled and hushed to peace.

• But when thou hast from the battle recalled those chieftains twain,
• Whichsoever seemeth the worse, lest he prove but a waster and bane,
• Slay; in an undisputed court let the better reign.90
• That one will be all aglow with spots like spangles of gold—
• For two kinds are there: this is noble of mien to behold,
• And bright with red-glowing scales; that seems as the sluggard in rags
• To be clothed, and an overgrown paunch like a very plebeian he drags.
• As king is diverse from king, even so is the follower’s frame:95
• Ungainly and ragged are these; ’tis as though some wayfarer came
• Parched from the track’s deep dust, and spat its powder of clay
• From his dry lips: those gleam bright, and flash in resplendent array,
• Ablaze with gold, and their backs do symmetrical blots overstrew.
• Ay, this is the better brood; from these in the season due100
• Thou shalt strain sweet honey; nor yet is its sweetness all, so fine
• Is its limpid clearness, so well doth it mellow the roughness of wine.

• But when aimlessly fly the swarms, and sport through the sky at their will,
• Setting their combs at naught, and leaving their dwellings to chill,
• Their fickle spirits shalt thou restrain from their profitless play.105
• No hard task this, to restrain them; tear thou the pinions away
• From their kings: while they tarry, not one of the rest will dare to stray
• Through cloudland; to pluck up the marching-standard none will essay.
• Let gardens breathing with blossoms of saffron woo them to stay,
• And let him who against the thief and the bird stands sentinel110

• With willow-wood scythe, Priapus of Hellespont, ward them well.
• Let him whose heart is indeed in the work bring thyme and pines
• From the mountains, and plant them around their abodes in broad green lines.
• Let him chafe with labour his hand himself, himself in the ground
• Set fruit-bearing shoots, and sprinkle the grateful showers around.115

• Yea, I, were I not drawn near to the goal of my toils by now,
• And were striking sail, and were hasting to turn to the land my prow,
• Peradventure would sing by what careful tillage the garden grows
• To a thing of beauty, of Paestum where blooms twice yearly the rose,
• And how the endive rejoices in drinking the brook as it flows,120
• How the green banks joy in the parsley, how melons to full orbs swell
• As they wind through the grass; of the tardily blooming narcissus to tell
• Had I spared not; acanthus-sprays soft-curled like an infant’s hand
• Had I sung, and the ivy pale, and the myrtles that love the strand.
• For I call to mind how I saw a Corycian gardener old,125
• Where Galaesus the dark-flowing laveth the tilth-land’s rippling gold,
• ’Neath Oebalia’s high-built towers. Some roods of unclaimed soil
• Had he taken: too barren they were to be worth the ploughman’s toil,
• Too bare for the grazing of sheep, too stony for growing of vines;
• Yet garden-herbs had he sown mid its thickets in wide-set lines,130
• And silver lilies he planted and slim-stemmed poppies around,
• And, returning home in the gloaming, the wealth of kings he found
• In contentment of heart, and his board with unbought banquets heaped.
• First in the spring the rose, and in autumn the apple he reaped;
• And, while scowling winter was cleaving the rocks with his frost-wedge still,135
• And was setting his curb of ice on the onward-racing rill,
• He, he was already cropping the hyacinth silken-tressed,
• Was challenging laggard summer and loitering winds of the west.
• He first in the year had armies of breeding bees, for whom
• They swarmed multitudinous, harvested first from the down-pressed comb140
• The frothing honey: lindens and pines thick-growing had he.
• All blooms that in blossoming hours of the spring overmantled the tree,
• All these were ripened fruit in the autumn, there failed of them none.
• He too could transplant into ordered rows elm-trees full-grown
• And pears age-hardened, and sloes already in fruitage arrayed,145
• And planes of size to shelter a banqueting group ’neath their shade.
• But myself from all these themes do my narrow limits withhold:
• I must pass them by, and leave them by future bards to be told.

• Lo, now what nature on bees was by Jove himself conferred
• Will I tell, and what guerdon they won when they followed the sound that they heard

• Of the music Curetes made when the cymbals’ clash rang high,
• And in Dicte’s cavern they fed with their honey the King of the Sky.
• They only have children in common: all homes of their city are one:
• To the majesty of Law subjected their life-days run.
• A fatherland and a settled home they only know.155
• They bethink them of coming winter, they toil through the summer-glow,
• And all that they win for the general use lay by in store.
• Some watch for the nation’s subsistence, by covenant bound, evermore:
• In the field some labour; within the home’s seclusion some
• Lay down the narcissus’ tears and the tree-bark’s viscid gum160
• For their honeycombs’ first foundations, then hang therefrom in their place
• The close-clinging wax of the cells. Some rear the hope of the race
• To full growth: honey, of sweet things purest, do others store
• Till with liquid nectar the straining cells are brimming o’er.
• Some are there, to whom ’tis allotted to ward the gates of the town:165
• In turn do they watch for the rain and the heaven’s cloud-knit frown:
• They receive the harvesters’ burdens, they close in phalanx of war,
• And they chase that thriftless rabble, the drones, from their precincts afar.
• ’Tis a fever of toil; thyme-scented the odorous honey-drops are.
• ’Tis as when the Cyclopes in haste from ingots tough red-glowing170
• Forge thunderbolts: some are indrawing the blast and anon outblowing
• From the bellows of bull-hide: others are plunging the hissing brass
• In the tank. Even Etna groans ’neath the anvil’s ponderous mass.
• Mightily swing they alternately up for the rhythmical blow
• Their arms; in the grip of the pincers the metal they turn to and fro.175
• Even so—if by giants’ work we may set things small as these—
• The gain-getter’s passion inborn spurs on the Cecropian bees,
• Each in his office. Their city’s ward is in charge of the old:
• They must build its combs, and its mansions cunningly fashioned must mould.
• But the young stream wearily home late, late in the gloaming-tide—180
• Their thighs from the thyme full-fraught—from pasturing far and wide
• On arbute, on silvery willow, on casia, on saffron in hue
• Like the rose, on the linden rich, on the hyacinth’s dusky blue.
• Unto all cometh one repose from toil, one labour to all.
• At morn from the gates they pour—no laggards! When evenfall185
• From their pasturing beckons them, warns them to quit their fields at length,
• Then homeward they hie them; with food and with rest they requicken their strength.
• Low humming and murmuring mutter their borders and thresholds around.
• Soon, when they have hushed them to rest in their bowers, there is heard no sound
• Nightlong, and in well-earned peace are their bodies slumber-bound.

• Not far from their steadings they stray when rain is threatening,
• Nor, when winds from the east draw near, do they trust to the welkin their wing;
• But in safety the water they draw ’neath their city’s ramparts found,
• And essay short flights; and pebbles they oft take up from the ground,
• Even as sea-rocked boats take ballast when waves toss high:195
• And with these self-balanced through unsubstantial clouds they fly.

• Nay more, thou wilt marvel that bees of this strange custom approve,
• That they will not cohabit, nor languidly couched in the bed of love
• Unbend their vigour, and bring forth young with travail-throe;
• But their own mouths gather from leaves and from all sweet herbs that blow200
• Babes: dead kings thus do they still replace and burghers small,
• And are ever renewing the waxen realm and its palace-hall.
• Oft, too, against jagged rocks do they fray, as they wander wide,
• Their wings, and they yield up their life ere they cast their burden aside;
• So love they the flowers, in begetting the honey such is their pride.205
• Therefore, though each one life be but for a little span,—
• That brief existence never its seventh summer outran,—
• Yet immortal abideth the race, and through years on years on-rolled
• The fortune stands of the house, and grandsires of grandsires are told.

• Moreover, they honour the king: nor Egypt nor Lydia the vast,210
• Nor the tribes of the Parthians, nor Medes by Hydaspes that dwell have surpassed
• The homage they render. While lives their king, one heart, one will
• Have all; when they lose him, they break their fealty, spoil and spill
• Their hoarded honey; their netted combs into fragments fall.
• He is their work’s overseer, him reverence they, and all215
• Close round him with multitudinous clamour, a thronged array:
• On their shoulders they bear him, their bodies shield him in battle’s day;
• Yea, wounds and a glorious death for him do they court in the fray.

• Some, taking for guide herein such multiplied token and sign,
• Have declared that on bees is bestowed some share in the soul divine,220
• Some draughts of the airs of heaven, for that God moves everywhere
• Through earth, the expanses of sea, and the limitless depths of air:
• From Him sheep, cattle, men, and all wild broods of the earth
• Drank in the ethereal draught of life in the hour of their birth:
• Yea, and to Him they return, for not unto Him do they die225
• At dissolution: there is no death; but they live, and they fly
• To the ranks of starland, and enter the high-reared halls of the sky.

• If thou wilt unseal their narrow abode, wilt rifle thence
• The treasure-hoards of their honey, with water besprinkle thee, cleanse
• Thy mouth therewith: be searching smoke thy forerunner and shield.230

• Twice yearly men gather their harvest, and take two seasons’ yield;
• First, when the Pleiad Taygete lifts o’er the earth at morn
• Her fair face, spurning the Ocean-stream with her heel as in scorn,
• And again, when fast from the rain-laden Fish doth the same star flee,
• And sinks down saddened from heaven mid waves of a wintry sea.235
• Their wrath then knows no bounds; molested thus, through their sting
• Venom they breathe; in thy veins their darts invisible cling,
• And they leave them there, even life unto vengeance surrendering.

• If thou fear for them winter’s rigour, wouldst spare the hope of the state,
• Bruised hearts and shattered fortunes if thou wilt compassionate,240
• Yet to smoke them with thyme and to shear off empty cells at the least
• Who scruples?—for oft hath the newt consumed in secret feast
• The combs, and the light-loathing cockroach’s crowded bowers are there,
• And the work-hating drone sits down in the toiler’s banquet to share;
• Or the hornet grim on the bees by his might overmatched hath warred:245
• Or the moths’ fell tribe swarm there; or she by Minerva abhorred,
• The spider, hath hung her nets loose-woven afront of their door
• Yet, the more their hoards have been drained, with energy so much the more
• On will they press to repair the wreck of a race brought low,
• Will refill cell-rows, and from flowers fresh-woven shall granaries grow.250

• But if, seeing life cometh laden with sore mischances to bees
• As to men, their frames shall droop and pine with woeful disease,—
• And this shalt thou straightway discern by no uncertain signs:
• When they sicken, their colour changeth, with leanness’s haggard lines
• Are their visages marred: the forms of friends that will see not again255
• Life’s light, from their homes they bear in mournful funeral-train:
• Or in clusters they hang at their portal with clinging feet entwined,
• Or loiter within behind closed doors, all hunger-pined
• Unto utter listlessness, and with cramping cold made numb.
• Then is a dull sound heard, a low continuous hum,260
• As when the bleak South moans through shivering forest-trees,
• As when with recoiling surges snarl the troubled seas,
• As when ravening flames are raging in close-shut furnaces.
• Forthwith, I counsel thee, burn there odorous incense-gum,
• And through channels of reed pour honey in, and cry to them “Come,265
• O weary souls, to the food that ye know!”—in encouragement call.
• ’Twill be good to mingle therewith the savour of bruised oak-gall
• And rose-leaves dried, or, boiled o’er a slow fire, must of wine
• Till it thickens to syrup, or raisin-pulp of the Psithian vine;
• And thyme therewithal, and strong-smelling centaury see thou combine.270

• There is also a flower in the meads, our yeomen have named its name
• Starwort, and easily found by them that seek is the same;
• For a forest of dense-growing stalks it uprears from its turfy bed.
• Golden its flower is, the leaves that around it abundantly spread
• Are aglow with a dusky violet shot through with a crimson sheen.275
• The altars of Gods are oft festooned with its gold and green.
• In the mouth is its savour bitter; in close-cropped meads doth the hind
• Cull it, and where the curving streams of Mella wind.
• The roots of this in the Wine-god’s odorous nectar seethe,
• And in piled maunds lay at their doors, a food from which health shall breathe.280

• If one’s whole stock shall have suddenly perished, nor any seed
• Remaineth, wherefrom the life of a new generation may breed,
• It is time to unfold the device of the Master of all bee-lore,
• The Arcadian, in what wise oft ere now from the putrid gore
• Of a slain steer bees have been gendered. A legend of days of yore285
• Will I trace far back to its primal birth as I tell it o’er.
• For where by Canopus the favoured race of Pellaean blood
• Dwell, by the lake-like overflow of the great Nile-flood,
• And in painted shallops around and above their farm-lands ride
• Where the marches of quivered Persia lie close on their eastern side,290
• And where into branches seven the rushing waters divide
• Of the river that sweepeth down from the swarthy Indians’ land,
• And fertilizeth Egypt the green with its black slime-sand,
• On this never-failing device doth the whole tract’s safety stand.
• First choose they a narrow space, and for this end straitened yet more:295
• With the tiling-stones of a low-pitched ceiling they roof it o’er:
• With narrowing walls they cramp that chamber; in these they place
• Four windows of slanting light, to the heaven’s four winds that face.
• A young steer two years old, whose brow is with curved horns crowned,
• Already is chosen; his nostrils and mouth are closely bound[300
• From breathing, despite his furious struggles: by blows is he slain
• So that pounded and mashed is his flesh, though unbroken the hide must remains.
• So stretched on the earth in his prison they leave him: beneath him they lay
• Fragments of boughs, and thyme, and the fresh-plucked casia-spray.
• This do they when first the west-winds drive the waves to the shore,305
• Before the meadows are flushing with flower-colours, before
• The twittering swallow is hanging her nest ’neath the rafter-beam.
• Meanwhile in the softened bones those humours heat, and steam
• And ferment; and lo, living creatures of aspect weird to behold—
• Footless at first, but wings loud-buzzing soon they unfold—310

• Swarm out: through impalpable air ever faster and faster they leap,
• Until, like rain from the summer-clouds falling in cataract-sweep,
• All burst forth, swift as the arrow that bounds from the pulsing string,
• Fleet as the Parthian riders battleward hurrying.

• What God, O Muses, was he who forged for us this device?315
• Whence did such new adventure of man’s experience rise?
• Aristaeus the shepherd, fleeing from Tempe’s Peneian dells,
• When his bees by disease and famine were lost, as the legend tells,
• By the sacred head where Peneius had birth stood mournfully,
• And there on his mother he cried with a great and bitter cry:320
• “O mother, who hauntest the swirling deeps of the flood, mother mine,
• Cyrene, why didst thou bear me, a child of the high Gods’ line,—
• If indeed, as thou sayest, my sire is Thymbraean Apollo,—to be
• But Fortune’s fool? Oh whither is banished thy love for me?
• Ah why didst thou bid me hope to ascend at the last to the sky?325
• Lo now, of this the crown of my days of mortality,—
• Which my skilful wardship of corn-land and cattle had scarcely achieved
• With all mine endeavour,—though thou art my mother, am I bereaved!
• Ah come, and my fruitful plantations disroot with thine own hand;
• Lay to my stalls fell flame, and blast my corn-clothed land;330
• My seedlings burn, on my vines swing up the pitiless bill,
• If such deep loathing of my renown thine heart doth fill!”

• Far down in her bower ’neath the flood was heard that woeful sound
• By his mother. Combing Milesian fleeces her Nymphs sat round,
• Fleeces with deep rich hues of the sea’s own emerald dyed.335
• For Phyllodoce, Drymo, Ligeia, and Xantho were there at her side:
• Over their snowy necks did the shining tresses fall.
• Cymodoce, Spio, Nesaia were there, Thalia withal;
• Cydippe, Lycorias golden-haired, a maiden one;
• Of the other Lucina’s travail of late had been undergone:340
• Clio, her sister Beroe; daughters of Ocean were these,
• Vestured in fawnskins, gleaming with golden braveries;
• Ephyre, Opis, and Deïopeia of Asian race,
• And swift Arethusa, whose arrows at last had rest from the chase.
• Amidst them was Clymene singing of Vulcan’s heart-ache vain,345
• And the wiles and the stolen delights of Mars, and rang through the strain
• The roll of the countless loves of the Gods since Chaos’ reign.
• As, entranced by the song, from their spindles the fleecy coils they unrolled,
• Thrilled through the mother’s ears the wail of the sorrowful-souled
• Aristaeus; and all on their hyaline thrones sat terror-amazed.350

• But before her sisters her golden head Arethusa upraised
• Above the face of the waters, and shoreward afar she gazed,
• And she cried far down: “Not causelessly scared by such woeful moan,
• Cyrene my sister, art thou. Thy best-belovèd, thy son,
• Aristaeus, mournfully stands by Father Peneius’ stream;355
• And he weepeth, and nameth thy name, and calleth thee cruel to him?”

• At her words the heart of the mother was thrilled with unwonted dread:
• “O lead him, lead him to me! The thresholds of Gods may he tread!”
• She cried. Then bade she the deep floods cleave asunder wide
• For a path to her young son’s feet; and lo, upon either side360
• Overbowed like a mountain-cliff the wave encompassing stood,
• And received ’neath its mighty arch, and ushered him in ’neath the flood.
• And now, in amaze at the realm of waters, his mother’s abode,
• At the pools cavern-pent, at the whispering river-groves, onward he strode.
• At the mighty march of the waters he gazed in wondering awe.365
• All rivers beneath the vast earth onward-gliding he saw
• To their several lands disparted: Phasis and Lycus were there,
• And the well-head whence deep Enipeus bursts to the upper air,
• And Hypanis crashing through crags, and Caïcus through Mysia that flows:
• There Father Tiber had birth, thence Anio’s swift rush rose,370
• And he, with the horns on his bull-brows overlaid with gold,
• Eridanus: none other stream through teeming tilth-lands rolled
• Into the violet sea with wilder sweep doth pour.
• When he came to the chamber with hanging lava raftered o’er,
• And the cause of the helpless tears of her son Cyrene knew,375
• For the washing of hands clear fountain-streams in order due
• Her sisters bear to him, napkins of pile close-shorn bring they:
• Some heap for the feast the board, and the brimming cups they array,
• And with incense of Araby they cause the altars to blaze.
• Then spake his mother: “A chalice of wine Maeonian upraise,380
• Let us pour a libation to Ocean.” Therewith she also prays
• Unto Ocean the father of all, to the Sisterhood of the Sea,
• In whose keeping forests a hundred and rivers a hundred be.
• Thrice down upon Vesta’s hearth the nectar clear did she dash,
• Thrice to the roof’s top-ridge did the flame updarting flash.385
• Then spake she, and strengthened his heart with the omen, and bade be of cheer:
• “In the Sea-god’s gulf Carpathian dwelleth a certain seer,
• Proteus the sea-azure-hued, who measures the far-stretching main
• With dolphins and twy-hoofed horses yoked to his swift sea-wain.
• Even now he revisits Pallene the land of his birth, and the shore390

• Of Emathia. Him we Maids of the Sea with worship adore,
• Yea, that doth Nereus the Ancient; for all things are known to the Seer,
• Things that are now, that have been, things swiftly drawing near:
• For so hath Neptune ordained, whose monster ocean-kine
• And seals misshapen he pastures beneath the swirling brine.395
• He first must be seized, must be bound, my son, till to thee he make known
• The cause of the curse on thy bees, and a prosperous issue have shown.
• For, except enforced, will he give no counsels, nor ever by prayer
• Shalt thou bend him: with violence stern must thou seize him, and fetter him there.
• On thy bonds will his wiles be broken at last, will to emptiness fleet.400
• Lo, I myself, when the sun hath enkindled the noontide heat,
• Will guide thee, when herbs are athirst, when shade to the flock is sweet,
• To the place of his hiding, whither the Ancient is wont to retreat
• Wave-wearied: thou lightly mayst steal on him stretched asleep on the sands.
• But when in thy grip thou hast seized him, hast lapped him in compassing bands,405
• Then shapes ever-shifting shall baffle thee, fierce things’ forms shall repel.
• To a bristly boar will he suddenly turn, to a tigress fell,
• To a scale-clad serpent, a lioness tawny-necked anon,
• Or crackling and roaring in flames be at point from thy bonds to have gone,
• Or dissolved to impalpable water between thy fingers shall pour.410
• But, still as he turneth himself into shape after shape evermore,
• Ever tighter and tighter, my son, those close-clinging bonds do thou strain
• Till he change for the last time of all his shape, and appear again
• As at first thou didst see him, when dropped on his eyes the slumber-rain.”

• So speaking, she bade the limpid scent of ambrosia flow415
• Overstreaming the form of her son from head to foot, and lo,
• Its ravishing perfume breathed through his smooth-sleeked hair; each limb
• With sinewy vigour was thrilled. A cavern vast and dim
• Yawns in the tide-tunnelled cliff, whither many a wave, by the wind
• Thither herded, through rock-clefts far-withdrawn is parted and thinned.420
• There mariners storm-overtaken safe anchorage found of old.
• Within hides Proteus, a huge rock-barrier before him rolled.
• Here did the Sea-nymph ambush her son withdrawn from the light:
• Herself stood far aloof in a cloud-haze veiled from sight.
• The flashings of Sirius by this, as he blazed in the sky, ’gan parch425
• The Indians with thirst, and the sun had climbed unto heaven’s mid-arch:
• Scorched was the grass; with sun-chapped lips lay the deep-channelled streams
• Glowing with heat, while slowly baked their mud in his beams.
• Then, seeking his cavern-haunt, rose up from the billowy blue
• Proteus, around him the folk of the vast sea, wet with its dew,430

• Gambolling leapt, and were flinging afar the briny spray.
• Soon, scattered along the shore, the seal-herd slumbering lay.
• Himself—like a sheepfold’s warder amidst of the hills on a day,
• When the evening star bringeth homeward the calves from the pasture away,
• And keen grows the hunger of wolves hearing bleating of lambs in the fold,
• On a rock in their midst sat down, and their number he told and retold.
• Aristaeus, now that he saw so near the goal of his quest,
• Scarce suffered the Ancient to lay his weary limbs to rest,
• Ere he rushed with a shout on him: ere he could rise, round his limbs had he thrown
• His manacles. Proteus forgat not the craft so wholly his own,440
• But in change after change all marvellous creatures of earth did he seem;
• He was fire, was a hideous brute, was a swiftly-fleeting stream.
• But when no illusion availed him the net of the hunter to break,
• To his own true shape he returned, and at last with a man’s voice spake:
• “Now who, most presumptuous of youths, hath bidden thee trespass thus445
• On these our abodes?” he said. “What seekest thou here of us?”
• “Thou knowest, O Proteus, thou knowest: evasion can baffle not thee;
• Cease then to essay evasion. Gods’ counsels have guided me
• To come, for my stricken fortunes to seek thine oracles here.”
• No more he said: then in stormily vehement mood the Seer450
• Rolled on him sea-green eyes that blazed as with impotent hate,
• And grimly gnashing his teeth unlocked the lips of fate:
• “No mean power is it whose anger smites thee with these stern strokes.
• Heavy offence dost thou expiate. Orpheus the hapless invokes
• This vengeance—not half thy deserts!—and if Fate withstand not his will,455
• His wrath for the wife that was snatched from his arms shall be hard on thee still.
• She, fleeing in blind haste over the river from thy pursuit—
• Doomed girl!—saw not in the rank-grown grass afront of her foot
• The monster water-snake that haunted the banks of the stream.
• But the band of her age-mates the Dryads filled with scream on scream460
• All mountain-peaks: then wept crag-towers that on Rhodope stand,
• All heights Pangaean, and Rhesus’ domain, the War-god’s land,
• The Getans and Hebrus, and Oreithyia the Maid of the Strand.
• To lull with the hollow lyre love’s anguish Orpheus tried,
• And thee alone on the lonely beach, thee, darling bride,465
• Thee in the dayspring he sang, sang thee in the eventide.
• Yea, and through Taenarus’ gorge, the abysmal portal of Dis,
• Through the grove of the horror of darkness, the shrouded mysteries,
• He passed: to the Shadow-land, to the King of Terrors, he came,
• To the hearts that know not relenting, whom no man’s prayers can tame.470

• But thrilled by his song rose up from Erebus’ depths of night
• Bodiless shades, and phantoms of folk bereft of the light,
• Multitudinous they as the birds that under the leaf-screens hide
• From the hills down-driven by evening or rains of the winter-tide;
• Came matrons and husbands, and mighty-hearted heroes’ shades475
• Who had lived their span of life; came lads and unwedded maids;
• Came youths, on the death-pyre laid before their parents’ eyes.
• The pitchy ooze, the loathly sedge of Cocytus lies
• About them; the sluggish wave of the Fen of Horror is sleeping
• Round the fettered ones held by the ninefold coils of Styx in keeping.480
• Yea, the halls and the innermost Hell of Death by his song spell-bound
• Were still, and the Furies whose hair is with livid snakes enwound.
• Cerberus bayed not; his triple jaws were agape, as rung
• The harp, and Ixion’s wheel on the wind all moveless hung.

• And now, retracing his steps, had he won of all risks clear,485
• And regiven Eurydice now to the upper air drew near
• As she followed behind,—that one condition had Proserpine made,—
• When a sudden frenzy of doubt the unwary lover betrayed.
• Forgiven it well might have been, if forgiveness to Hades were known.
• He stopped: upon daylight’s verge was Eurydice, almost his own!490
• Forgetting, and heart-overmastered he looked back! Ah, in that hour
• As water spilt was his toil, and the bond of the pitiless Power
• Cancelled. Thrice was a thunder-crash heard from Avernus’ fen!
• ‘What, oh, what utter madness hath ruined,’ she cried to him then,
• ‘Both me the all-hapless and thee, O Orpheus? Back am I called495
• By the ruthless Fates, and with slumber my swimming eyes are palled.
• Farewell now! Compassed with limitless night am I swept away
• As I stretch to thee strengthless hands—ah, thine never more for aye!’

• So cried she, and lo, from his sight, as smoke with impalpable air
• Blent, far-fleeting she sped; nor, albeit he clutched in despair500
• At the shadows, albeit he yearned to pour out his soul in pleading,
• Did he see her thereafter. Orcus’ ferryman heard unheeding
• His prayer to cross that barrier-fen of Lethe’s flow.
• What should he do? Twice robbed of his wife, whitherward should he go?
• What tears could prevail with the Shades, what cry touch Hades’ King?505
• Ah, she in the Stygian barge even now swam shivering!

• Month after month, for seven whole months, as telleth the tale,
• ’Neath a cloud-capt rock by Strymon’s lonely stream did he wail,
• And deep in the ice-cold caverns unfolded all his pain,
• Taming the tigresses, making the oak-trees follow his strain:510

• As under a poplar’s shade doth the nightingale mourn and mourn,
• Bemoaning her nestlings lost, which a ruthless churl hath torn
• From the nest where his eye had marked them yet unfledged; but she
• Weeps nightlong. Crouched on a bough, her woeful melody
• Still she renews, and all through the land is her sad plaint heard.515
• No waking of love, no dream of a bridal, his spirit stirred.
• Alone through the norland ice, over Tanais veiled with snow,
• Over fields aye wedded to frosts Rhipaean, he roamed to and fro
• Bewailing the cancelled boon of Dis, and Eurydice torn
• From his arms, till the women Ciconian, who held love’s tribute for scorn520
• Of themselves, mid their rites and the revels of Bacchus through darkness that reeled
• Tore him in pieces, and strewed with his young limbs many a field.
• Yet then, even then, when his head, from the neck’s white marble shorn,
• On the swirling mid-stream rolled down Oeagrian Hebrus was borne,
• The masterless voice ever shrieked ‘Eurydice!’ Cold in death525
• The tongue crieth ‘Woe for Eurydice, woe!’ with fleeting breath:
• All down the stream each echoing bank ‘Eurydice!’ saith.”
• Thus Proteus; and lo, mid the deep with one swift bound had he sprung,
• And where he had vanished was foam on an eddy that swirled and swung.

• But Cyrene vanished not: straightway she spake to her trembling son:530
• “Son, bid thy sorrow and care from thine heart disburdened be gone.
• Herein is the one sole cause of thy plague. The Forest-maids,
• With whom she wont to glide in the dance ’neath wildwood shades,
• On thy bees sent this sore havoc. Bring gifts, and for pardon pray
• To the Wood-nymphs humbly, for easy to be entreated are they.535
• They will grant to thy prayers forgiveness, their wrath will they then forbear.
• But first will I tell thee in order the fashion of this thy prayer:—
• Four bulls, the choice of the herd, of peerless form, choose thou,
• Which on green Lycaeus’ heights for thy need are pasturing now;
• Choose also heifers as many, whose necks no yoke ever bore;540
• And for these by the Wood-nymphs’ high-built shrines rear altars four.
• There cause thou to stream the hallowed blood from the throats of the kine,
• And the victims’ carcases leave in the grove that embowers the shrine.
• When the Dawn, at her ninth uprising thereafter, to earth shall return,
• For death-dues to Orpheus, poppies, the flowers of oblivion, burn,545
• And a black ewe slay; and then to the grove returning again,
• Eurydice worship, appeased at last, with a young calf slain.”

• He tarried not: straightway he set him to do as his mother bade.
• He came to the shrine; the altars, as counselled of her, he arrayed;
• Choice bulls, of form unrivalled, thither he led down four,550

• • And heifers as many withal, whose necks no yoke ever bore.
  • When the ninth uprising of Dawn thereafter in splendour burned,
  • The death-dues to Orpheus he paid, and again to the grove returned.
  • But here do they look on a portent sudden and strange to be told—
  • Through the putrefied flesh of the kine, even all that the hides enfold,555
  • Bees buzzing come, from the rifted ribs like steam-clouds rolled,
  • Clouds trailing on measureless clouds! They swarm to the tree-top now,
  • And a cluster huge hangs down from every bending bough.
• • Such strains of the tillage of fields, of the rearing of beasts, I sang,
  • And of trees, while mighty Caesar’s thunder of battle rang560
  • By Euphrates the deep, and laws by the conqueror’s right he gave
  • Unto willing nations—yea, and his path unto Heaven did he pave.
  • Through those great days was I cradled on pleasant Parthenope’s knees,
  • I Virgil, embowered in the strenuous toils of inglorious peace,
  • Who have chanted the Shepherds’ Songs, who with youth’s presumption have sung,
  • Tityrus, thee ’neath the covert by broad beech-boughs overhung.